The transaction system has already seen massive success through Starbucks and is moving to another coffee chain.
In 2012, Square mobile payments scored a tremendous deal in order to power the smartphone based credit card transactions at Starbucks, which was already known for its tremendous successes in this sphere.
Now, the company has announced that it is integrating with an additional coffee chain company.
Square will now be supplying the mobile payments at the point of sale at the boutique café chain, Blue Bottle Coffee. Its news release indicated that during the first wave, consumers at the Oakland, San Francisco Mint Plaza, and Brooklyn locations will be able to use the Square Wallet. However, over the next few months, the coffee chain intends to continue to roll out this option at its other locations.
Unlike Starbucks mobile payments, Blue Bottle will be using the Square Register as its complete POS system.
This will allow Blue Bottle to accept cash, credit card, and mobile payments, while it also tracks its store inventory, and is provided with reports on a daily basis so that it can monitor its progress. Consumers will be able to use the Square Wallet system to make a purchase by simply saying their names to authenticate the transaction.
According to the Blue Bottle Founder, James Freeman, in the news release, “We put a great deal of thought into every detail in each of our stores. We think about the right wood for our counters, the best beans, and how we can continue to serve our customers the perfect cup of coffee as we grow.” He also added that they felt that Square was the right mobile payments option for their business due to that company’s customer focus and “attention to detail.”
At the moment, there are 11 Blue Bottle locations in New York City and the San Francisco Bay area. It intends to continue its expansion and will bring its mobile payments along with it. It is one of several small chains that have joined with the Square Register, which is powered by iPad, over the last few months.
The new service that could result may give a considerable advantage over competition like Square.
Two of the largest players in mobile payments – PayPal and NCR – have just announced that they will be working together in a major new deal that may help to create a significant advantage for themselves within this marketplace.
This should help PayPal to gain a notable edge when compared to its competition.
This could be unwelcome news for Square, which is the primary competition within that sector. The assistance of the point of sale company, NCR, could give PayPal a great deal of additional weight. The agreement will bring mobile payments from PayPal into the apps and services from NCR that are commonly used by retailers and restaurants.
It will begin by simply adding a PayPal mobile payments checkout option within NCR’s Pay application.
This will provide restaurant patrons with the opportunity to use their smartphones to use PayPal to pay for their meals. However, the services will expand from there over time. Soon, there will be a PayPal dining experience in which it will be able to use its own mobile payments apps whenever a customer checks in at a participating NCR location.
Though this may sound like a light deal at first – particularly as PayPal has already recently announced that there are 23 retailers currently using its own point of sale solutions – this could end up being one of the mobile payments company’s most important developments as it seeks to lead its industry. NCR is not in any way new, having been established 128 years ago. It currently powers the POS for half of all of the major retail chains, as well as 38 percent of the leading 100 American restaurants. This will provide PayPal with a tremendous amount of reach as they gain access to millions of customers through NCR.
That said, NCR isn’t working exclusively with PayPal for mobile payments. It has also created a deal with Google Wallet and has indicated that it is available for agreements with other providers, as well.
Beyond mobile payments, the PayPal and NCR deal will also give consumers access to special offers, coupons, and other types of discount deals, starting in gas stations, restaurants, and small convenience stores, and broadening from there.
