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On Wednesday, the Girl Scouts of North East Ohio said they would use Intuit Inc.'s GoPayment device, and Girl Scouts San Diego said they would use Mophie Inc.'s marketplace reader.
February 23
The Girl Scouts are demonstrating there is nearly as much variety in their mobile payment acceptance choices as there is in their cookie selection.
The Girl Scouts of Ohio's Heartland Council has begun using AppNinjas Inc.'s Swipe Credit Card Terminal for iPhone to accept credit and debit card payments, making it the third group using a mobile card reader for cookie sales. AppNinjas' technology is also the third option being tested by the Girl Scouts. The deal was announced March 9.
The Girl Scouts of North East Ohio and the Girl Scouts San Diego in February announced plans to use other mobile readers.
The Heartland Girl Scout troops will use the AppNinjas devices through the end of this month.
"We believe [using a mobile card reader] will help make cookie buying easier for consumers when we are selling the cookies at booths in retail locations this month," a spokeswoman said. "Accepting cash or checks may be a barrier for some consumers, as most consumers pay for everything using cards, and it alleviates any potential bad debt we may get from accepting bad checks."
After the individual troops delivered their initial cookie orders at the end of February, many members still had cookies left over. They will sell those at retail points and major events, she said. And because consumers now may use their cards to buy cookies, which cost $3.50 per box, many likely will buy more than one box, the spokeswoman said.
AppNinjas' reader normally costs $80, but it donated 25 readers and the associated application because the Girl Scouts are a nonprofit organization and are only testing the device, the spokeswoman said. The application is normally free or 99 cents, depending on which version merchants use and whether the merchant is a new customer.
The scouts are using Merchant Focus Inc., a payment gateway, to handle the card transactions. The Dublin, Ohio, independent sales organization charges the council a small percentage of each credit and debit card sale, but the spokeswoman declined to disclose the exact amount. No fees, however, are passed on to consumers or to each individual Girl Scout troop, she said.
Merchant Focus also is waiving its monthly $10 service fee and $15 monthly processing minimum, and it is enabling the council to suspend its account in the off-season if it wants to use it again for its fall product sale, the spokeswoman said.
The market for mobile point of sale readers is one of the most promising areas of mobile payments right now, said Gwenn Bezard, co-founder and research director at Aite Group LLC of Boston. And the adoption level is starting to take off, he said.
However, when the industry talks about mobile payment, many say that it is going to "kill" plastic card payments. But mobile payment acceptance actually "has the potential to dramatically expand acceptance for cards," Bezard said.
Mobile payment card acceptance will continue to grow, Bezard said.
"Consumers have a card and are used to the concept of swiping cards, so they don't have to learn anything new," he said.
