The Wallet Death Watch
Posted on David Pierce | 1 Comment
The New York Times reports on a big change from Square, who’s doing some seriously disriptive things in the realm of how we pay and get paid:
On Monday, Jack Dorsey, Square’s co-founder and chief executive, announced a way for shoppers to pay by simply giving their name to the merchant. Mr. Dorsey, who also co-founded Twitter, said customers would use a new feature on Square’s iPhone or Android apps, called Card Case, to make payments. Merchants would use one called Register to ring up and track purchases.
Using cellphones to ease offline purchases is a crowded corner of tech investment. Most companies are tackling one aspect of purchasing, like mobile payments or coupons. But Mr. Dorsey is thinking big. He wants Square to be involved in every step of the transaction process by replacing cash registers, loyalty cards and paper receipts. “We think it should be one system,” he said.
The whole article’s worth reading, and Square’s a company worth following. They’re making it both easy and cheap to get paid by credit cards, and are making the experience for the buyer even easier. The Card Case feature is the one that fascinates me – the Huffington Post does a nice job explaining:
“We want to take away all of this clutter, all the paper, all the mess,” Dorsey said. “Get rid of the take out menus, get rid of the loyalty cards, get rid of the receipts, get rid of it and replace it with one clean digital card.”
The card, also an app, lets customers see menus that can be updated in real time through the Square register, as well as keeping track of full itemized receipts for every purchase. The card case also lets people see a directory of shops in the area. It also allows people to open up tabs so that they can simply pay with their name at locations that accept the Square card case.
