PayPal wants to see a newly launched mobile payments trial with Home Depot scale up to the US retailer's entire nationwide chain by March. According to Bloomberg, the payments provider wants the scheme to be running in all 2,200 of the retailer’s outlets by next month.  The company started its trial this week with 51 Home Depot outlets in the San Francisco area.  PayPal’s service enables shoppers to pay for goods by inputting their mobile numbers and a PIN into existing in-store payments terminals. They can also use a payments card issued by PayPal to make purchases too.

In terms of financial benefit, PayPal’s parent eBay is unlikely to see the fruits of instore payments in the short term. Such payments will not have a significant impact in the current financial year but the company expects to reap benefits in the longer term. Instore payments could deliver benefits in three to five years timescale, it says.  PayPal will hold m-payment trials with 20 more retailers this year, it says. eBay last week exceeded analyst expectations with its financial results, thanks in part to the strong performance of PayPal. Increasingly the payments provider is seeing a steep growth in users making payments from their mobile phones. Adding the capability to make payments in retailers would further strengthen PayPal's mobile business.