InformationWeek: The Business Value of Technology

20 Great Ideas To Steal In 2012

Start The Discussion | Stacey Peterson | September 12, 2012 00:01 AM

Are you playing it too safe, IT leaders? Take these InformationWeek 500 projects along to rev up your next brainstorming session.

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Cash, Credit, Or PayPal?

As part of an intense focus on improving the customer checkout experience, The Home Depot became the first major retailer to integrate PayPal into its brick-and-mortar point-of-sale system.

Home Depot and PayPal worked together to develop a magnetic-stripe card that would work with PayPal and to offer a mobile device-based PayPal option. Home Depot deployed both to existing checkout terminals. Shoppers also can enter their phone numbers and PayPal PINs to pay, an option that's helpful if a customer has forgotten his or her wallet. Once the transaction is complete, the customer receives a text-messaged receipt almost immediately.

The PayPal payment system was developed and tested over about 11 months. Then Home Depot team deployed it to all its nearly 2,000 U.S. stores in a matter of two weeks.