E-commerce giant PayPal is expanding offline and coming to New York City. The eBay-owned company, which sets up wireless money transfer systems for merchants, will open a temporary pop-up store in TriBeCa on Nov. 1. The store will give opportunities for merchants to look at the new mobile digital payment services that PayPal plans to release in the upcoming months, including features such as location-based deals.
“We’re rolling out a one-stop shop for merchants to engage their customers directly during every part of the shopping life cycle,” PayPal President Scott Thompson wrote in a blog post.
Arun Sundararajan, New York U. professor and digital economy expert, said PayPal’s decision to build an offline presence is a smart one.
“They’ve handled payments for virtual-space (online) merchants in the past and that’s where their presence is,” Sundararajan said. “The pop-up store will help them draw in physical-space merchants and get them aware of PayPal as a payment option.”
PayPal joins a long list of companies that have taken advantage of New York City’s booming technology sector, including Twitter, which just announced their new East Coast headquarters last week. Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently said he believed New York City could soon surpass Silicon Valley as the nation’s hot spot for technology startups and ventures.
NYU junior and president of Tech@NYU Vivek Patel said the new physical location will be a boon to his and other startups.
“The leaders and key influencers in the start-up scene, along with the top companies here are dedicated to making the city an entrepreneurial hot spot,” he said. “The entrepreneurial culture needs to develop and mature more for this trend to be sustainable, but I think the potential exists.”
Sundararajan said he is encouraged by the store’s Manhattan location.
“While I do believe that the tech buzz in New York City is very exciting these days, the choice of Manhattan also has to do with it having a high concentration of retailers and a large number of them in a relatively small geographic area, which maximizes the impact of the pop-up store,” he said.
While the “Shopping Showcase” will be open by invitation only to select merchants and media members, passers-by can scan the oversized QR codes on the space’s exterior to learn more about PayPal’s new products and services.