Australian-based shopping centre chain Westfield has joined with PayPal to enable customers of its Shepherd’s Bush centre to pay for the carpark with their mobiles.
The company, which has shopping centres in Australia, New Zealand, the US and 10 in the UK, says shoppers will now be able to park with the PayPal app as well as being able to use it in many of the stores within the centre.
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Bill Giouroukos, Westfield director of operations for the UK and Europe said: "Westfield prides itself on pioneering digital innovations for our customers.
"We know that our customers love their smartphones and a high level of service, so it was a natural fit to partner with PayPal to allow convenient payment for parking with phones. It’s one less thing to worry about."
To encourage customer take-up, Westfield London is offering free parking on weekdays and all day weekend parking for £3 ($5.14) when customers pay with PayPal.
The PayPal app is not yet available to pay for car parking at Westfield Stratford city, the Westfield group’s other site in the city.
As well as being able to pay for their parking without cash, London shoppers arriving by bus will now travel cashless.
The capital’s buses stopped accepting cash on 6 July, a move Transport for London (TfL) said would save a cool £24m a year.
Passengers must now pay by Oyster card, contactless payment card, or a prepaid or concessionary ticket.
TfL said cash fares have made up less than 1% of bus journeys this year – down from around 25% a decade ago.
Mike Weston, director of buses, TfL, says: "Removing cash from our bus network not only offers customers a quicker and more efficient bus service but it enables us to make savings of £24m a year which will be re-invested to further improve London’s transport network."
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