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Visa Inc. has invested an undisclosed amount of money in Square Inc., the start-up company that lets merchants accept card payments through a small square-shaped device that plugs into smartphones.
April 27
Square Inc., an early and successful contender in mobile payment acceptance, has launched a new system that it says can replace a traditional cash register.
Square's earlier card reader was focused on small merchants, such as vendors at a farmer's market, that might not have the ability to use a full point of sale terminal.
In this way, the San Francisco company was attempting to fill a void in the market. Its new Square Register app instead takes aim at the established payment system — its promotional video even depicts a user removing an old, bulky cash register to
The Square Register app, announced Monday, helps merchants track inventory and customer transactions. It works with the same Square card reader that many merchants already use for basic card payments.
Over a short amount of time, Square built a strong following, even drawing an
Square launched its original mobile card reader for the iPad in May, 2010, just a month after the original iPad was released. The new Square Register app could similarly capitalize on the buzz surrounding the new iPad version that Apple is expected to announce this week.
Though rival payment companies sell form-fitting sleeves for iPhones, iPads and other devices, Square has kept to its original design of a small plastic cube that connects to any mobile device's headphone port.
Users of the Register app also have access to an analytics dashboard designed by Square for small-business owners. The dashboard shows transaction details sorted by month, time of day, payment size and other categories, a Square representative said in an email.
An email sent to a Square representative requesting comment on the new Register application was not immediately returned.
The Square Register app has potential, analysts say. The new software allows consumers to pay using Square's
With the Register app, Square "will better market the Card Case and they can actually get consumers to have a preference for Square transactions," says James Van Dyke, the president and founder of Javelin Strategy and Research. "They can get cardholders to feel more comfortable with a Square … [app] because they are allowing consumers to set controls around transactions."
Though the Register app is aimed at merchants with more complex needs than the original Square reader could serve, it does not address the needs of larger merchants, analysts say.
"I do not expect them to be successful competing against enterprise-class products … since their product will be constrained by the capabilities of the iPad and lack of access to back-end systems," says Wedbush analyst Gil B. Luria. "And since their cost of card acceptance is far higher than other acquirers they will not be able to attract bigger retailers."
The inventory-management features of Square's new app in some ways resemble VeriFone Systems Inc.'s GlobalBay software, which also uses Apple devices.
VeriFone, of San Jose, has clashed with Square in the past. Its Payware Mobile system competes with Square's reader, and VeriFone CEO Douglas Bergeron has publicly
This time around, however, the two companies are targeting different markets with VeriFone better suited to serve larger companies, Bergeron says.
"We are already selling into top 500 retailers and we have the [independent sales organization] community for [small and medium-sized businesses]," says Bergeron in an email.
