It's been a busy few days at PayPal. Late last week, the global payments giant announced a major update to its app for Android and iOS. The new features have a strong mobile payments bent.

And now the company has announced the planned rollout of "Beacon," which uses Bluetooth Low Energy technology to let customers check into retail stores and pay by verbal consent. Writing on the company blog, PayPal President David Marcus calls the solution PayPal's "most significant contribution to date in reinventing the in-store shopping experience."

Beacon is a new add-on technology that merchants plug into an A/C outlet. When a PayPal customer walks into a participating store and agrees to check in, Beacon triggers a quick vibration or sound to confirm a check-in; the customer's photo then appears on a point-of-sale screen.

To pay, the customer simply gives a verbal confirmation. "No wallet. No card. Nothing to do. Not even touching your phone," Marcus wrote.

BLE was chosen to resolve some problems posed by traditional geo-location, Marcus said, including power consumption. It will work for any store running a PayPal-compatible POS system, and will only transmit information to PayPal or to the merchant if the customer agrees to check in. 

Marcus said the solution aims to improve on the credit-card-swiping experience. "That's hard," he said. "No one wakes up in the morning and thinks, 'I wish someone had invented something better than swiping a card to pay.' ... We figured the only better way to pay would be to do nothing."

The company will begin piloting Beacon in the fourth quarter.

New app

PayPal's vastly redesigned app is getting a lot of kudos across the Web for creating a more seamless in-store shopping experience.

A new tab called "Shop," the first thing that appears when the app is opened, displays nearby stores or restaurants that accept PayPal payments. Users can check in and open a tab, then select various payment methods from the check-in screen. Upon payment, the app generates a confirmation alert and sends an email receipt.

"You've really got access to your entire wallet in the app," Hill Ferguson, VP, global product at PayPal, wrote on the company blog.

The app also lets you order food ahead of your arrival, bypassing the line. That feature works through PayPal's partnership with Eat24 and is reportedly currently available at about 1,000 eating establishments. PayPal initially tested the feature at McDonald's in France and at some Jamba Juice locations.

Diners can pay at the table, and at some locations, order more drinks.

For the first time, the app includes a Bill Me Later tab that lets users apply to finance PayPal purchases. And it integrates coupons and offers.

Ferguson told TechCrunch that the company wanted the new app to help consumers solve problems, and that payment isn't something they typically complain about.

So the company focused on other potentially problematic experiences in the retail environment, he said: waiting in line, waiting to pay the bill at their table and keeping track of coupons.

Watch that interview in the video below:

Learn more about mobile/digital wallets.