More than 500,000 small and medium sized businesses will now be able to accept mobile payments instore from up to 5.5 million active Australian PayPal users, following a new partnership between Tyro Payments and PayPal.

Called Tyro Mobile, the new payment solution gives Australia’s small and medium sized enteprises (SMEs) the capability to meet exploding consumer demand for mobile payment facilities via the PayPal Australia consumer app.

“Australians increasingly want to pay for purchases quickly and conveniently, and Tyro’s partnership means those with the PayPal app can now use their smart phones to do so in a second,” Tyro CEO, Jost Stollmann, said.

“We champion small and medium sized merchants and our technology gives them the ability to compete with big players in their markets, like Coles and McDonalds, and to become more appealing to consumer needs.”

Stollmann said that with more than 5.5 million active PayPal account holders already in Australia, a large portion of whom regularly use the PayPal app, the uptake of Tyro Mobile by merchants had enormous potential.

“PayPal is the operating system for digital payments and partnerships like this one with Tyro Mobile allow us to extend our offering to Australian businesses of all sizes,” said Emma Hunt, director of SMB, PayPal Australia.

“We’ve seen widespread acceptance of our consumer app amongst our more than 5.5 million active Australian users and are excited that Tyro Mobile’s merchants can now connect with our customers by facilitating PayPal payments in store,” Hunt said.

Studies by Ipsos Global Mobile Research Findings found Australian smartphone users’ top reasons to pay with their mobiles instore are; ‘It’s a convenient way to pay’ 32 per cent; ‘It’s a fast way to pay’, 27 per cent; ‘I do not need to carry or pull out a physical wallet, when my details are stored’, 22 per cent; and ‘It’s easier than paying by cash or card’, 19 per cent.