PayPal trialing NFC retail payment system in Sweden

PayPal enabled phone-to-phone NFC money exchanges in its Android app last month, and now the company is moving on to in-store transactions with a retail trial in Sweden. Sports equipment retailer Alpingaraget and electronics store Webhallen are participating in the five-day program. A new version of PayPal’s app for iOS and Android will offer customers special discounts at the participating locations, while the stores will hand out NFC stickers for use with their point-of-sale systems. Funds will be pulled directly from a user’s PayPal account.

The company is partnering with Swedish developers Point and Accumulate, using the latter’s “Mobile Everywhere” security solution. It is reportedly just the first of several in-store transaction options PayPal will be testing, though the company has not offered any details or dates for future trials. If putting an NFC sticker on your phone seems like a clunky solution, however, you’re not alone. With a relatively small number of devices incorporating the technology at the moment, the company is keeping its options open, telling TechCrunch that “PayPal isn’t betting the farm on NFC.”