Groupon announced on Wednesday that it is adding credit card terminals to its existing payments suite for local businesses.
“This addition extends our popular payments service to the most common way that local businesses accept payments, making an affordable payments solution available to nearly all merchants,” a Groupon spokesperson tells WebProNews. “Most small businesses run on multiple devices — With the ability to run across mobile, iPad and terminal point-of-sale devices, Groupon now caters to every type of payments need.”
The spokesperson adds, “Small businesses have three options to implement Groupon’s payments service on a credit card terminal: configure an existing Verifone and Ingenico device; purchase a Verifone vx520 from Groupon for $150 (with no monthly contract or fees); or rent a Verifone vx520 to own for $15 per month (for 12 months).”
With the pre-programmed device, Groupon offers a low price “guarantee” as well as free processing and 24/7 Payment Center access, which includes analytics from all Groupon POS devices, including the ability to run reports on payment trends, top customers, refund amounts and tip totals.
“While merchants are attracted to the easy signup, low and transparent pricing and powerful analytics provided by our payments service, not all merchants are ready to immediately adopt an iPad or iPhone for their credit card processing needs,” said Sean Harper, director of product, Groupon. “We anticipate that most merchants will eventually migrate their payments to tablet and mobile POS systems, but for now, this option lets them use familiar hardware and still benefit from the features of our payments service to save money and better manage their businesses.”
The company will add its payments service to additional mobile, tablet and POS devices in the future.