PayPal acquires mobile commerce company Modest in an effort to provide better shopping experience for customers

If a customer finds it difficult to make a purchase, they will walk away. PayPal seeks to make it easier for customers to make a purchase by acquiring Modest on Thursday.

Acquiring the mobile commerce platform Modest marks PayPal's first purchase after becoming a standalone public company. The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Modest, founded in 2012, is a company that aims to help merchants provide a better experience for their customers.

It makes businesses conveniently create their own app or combine their stores with other apps. It also provides tools that make it easier for merchants to add buy buttons in other platforms while selling products on other sites.

Merchants want to make their products readily and conveniently available for their customers. A customer doesn't want to exert much effort to buy a product, otherwise, they will leave. This whole idea is known as "contextual commerce."

By purchasing Modest, PayPal brings it "contextual commerce" to the next level. Most social media platforms these days now have apps that let users buy products directly from their sites. This makes it easier and quicker for customers to make a purchase.

Modest is a start-up company founded by former Obama for America leaders Dylan Richard and Harper Reed. They worked as important IT personnel for President Barack Obama during the president's re-election campaign.

Richard, Reed, and the rest of their 18 employees will work with Chicago-based Braintree, a company PayPal acquired about $800 million from eBay in 2013. According to the owners of Modest, they are paving the way for the future of commerce.

Reed said, "This won't be any fun if we're not able to scale. If we can build a great product, but can't push this out to millions, then it's boring...we found this amazing cheat code to get to scale."

Braintree is excited to work with PayPal, saying that they will capitalize on the merchant experience and knowledge of the e-commerce company.