Retail Adoption Of Alternative Payments Soars 23 Percent, Bill Me Later and PayPal Tied
Written by Evan SchumanThe nation’s largest retailers continue to get more comfortable with online alternative payments such as PayPal, Bill Me Later and Google Checkout, increasing their adoption some 23 percent, according to new figures released from Rosetta.
About 37 percent of those largest retailers now accept at least one of the three largest alternative payment services. Only six of those retailers—Toys R Us, Sports Authority, Rite Aid, Petsmart, NHL and Dick’s Sporting Goods—accept all three forms.
Coincidentally, the report found that six retailers also accepted all three last year, but it was a different six. Although Dick’s did not accept all three last year (that changed when it started accepting Google Checkout in 2008), now defunct retailer Sharper Image did.
When comparing the three services, Bill Me Later and PayPal were tied with 25 percent each. (Bill Me Later had a one chain lead, but lost it when Amazon announced on December 31, 2008, that it was cutting off Bill Me Later due to eBay having purchased Bill Me Later.) Google Checkout was at 11 percent, one point more than it was last year. It lost three retailers—Sharper Image, CompUSA and MTV—and gained the support of Dick’s Sporting Goods, Sports Authority, Zale’s and RadioShack.
The mobile challenge is less about supporting the devices and more about having the skill and tenacity to integrate the ordering app into the multitude of POS networks/software iterations. 
-Dan Stiel