Paypal
executive Don Kingsborough, who helped orchestrate the payments
company’s move into physical retail stores, stepped down in January, the
company said on Wednesday.
His
departure, which tech blog Re/code first reported, comes as the company
competes with the likes of fast-growing startup Square to get its
payments system adopted in more retail chains across the United States.
PayPal,
which is slated to split from eBay Inc later this year, will keep
testing and investing in various in-store payments systems, eBay
spokeswoman Amanda Miller said in a statement.
Kingsborough
was instrumental in PayPal’s attempts to push innovations such as
in-store ordering and pickup and physical-checkout payment at chains
ranging from Home Depot Inc to Jamba Juice.
But
the company increasingly has had to contend with rivals such as Square,
which is popular with smaller businesses, and Apple Inc’s Apple Pay.
Online commerce foe Amazon.com Inc is also beginning to explore in-store
payments.
It
is unclear how much progress PayPal has made on that front. eBay said
it enjoys “a strong foothold in offline retail,” but analysts say it has
been difficult for the tech companies vying for checkout space to
contend with the simple convenience of debit or credit cards.
eBay
did not say why Kingsborough decided to step down or where he might be
going. In an interview with Re/code, he said, “I think we were able to
move the needle, but I have to say I leave a little frustrated in that I
wish we as an executive team would have done more.”
His
departure comes as eBay prepares to lay off some 7 percent of its
workforce, or 2,400 jobs, including PayPal employees, before the two
companies split in the second half of 2015. That move would create an
autonomous, stand-alone PayPal that analysts say could be worth some $40
billion.
Posted by : Gizmeon
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