'Net Features : square

Edison Awards Honor Optify, Integrate & More

Amberly Dressler — Wed, 01 May 2013 17:50:00 GMT

The online industry was well represented at the 26th Annual Edison Awards held in Chicago, April 24-25.

Judged by a panel their peers, including business executives, past winners, academics and leaders in their respective fields, companies and products such as Optify Connect by Optify (Measurement/Management Tools), ClickShare by Barco (for Content Management), Square Register by Square (Innovative Services) and AdHQ by Integrate (Communication/Campaign) walked away with gold Edison Awards for their advances.

“It’s a huge accomplishment to be recognized with a gold Edison Award among some of the most innovative companies in the space,” said Rob Eleveld, CEO of Optify. “We’ve been fine-tuning our software suite to meet the ever-growing needs of digital marketing agencies, and Optify Connect is an integral part of that success.”

To see a full list of the winners, click here.

Hip to be Square with $200 Million

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 15:30:00 GMT

Payment technology and service provider Square has raised $200 million as part of a Series D round (bringing its total to an estimated $325 million) that included $25 million from Starbucks.

While backed by some big names including Visa and Chase, it will need much of that $200 million to quell the inevitable grand marketing push made by its equally well-funded competitors - we're looking at you Ebay and Google.

The funding, according to insiders, comes from Citi Ventures, Rizvi Traverse Management and the previously mentioned Starbucks. Square has seen incredibly rapid growth - 300 new employees - and accelerated use in the past year, powering over 8 billion in transactions.

Square is most certainly a disruptive force in the payments market. The company offers a reasonable 2.75% swipe fee, no additional fees, next-day deposits and the best part, a free card reader.

What a Process: Payment Platforms for Merchants

Allison Howen — Mon, 21 May 2012 20:00:00 GMT

There are a few necessities that e-commerce merchants need to set in place before they can run their stores, including a business plan, merchandise and, of course, a secure payment processing solution.

Companies are now bridging the payment gap between consumer and merchant by offering more versatile and innovative payment options such as mobile payment wallets. However, not all of these solutions are created the same. While some offer more features, others may offer lower rates -- which is why merchants should be fully aware of what they are committing to before making a decision.

Take a look at these innovative payment processing solutions below:

Square

Although Square isn’t the newest mobile payment processing solution, it doesn’t mean that it is outdated. This solution can be used to accept payments from mobile devices through a square-shaped reader. Retailers simply need to sign up for the free reader, which is compatible with iOS and Android devices, as well as install the free Square app in order to leverage this platform. Merchants are charged a rate of 2.75 percent per swipe for Visa, MasterCard, Discover and AmEx credit cards.

This solution can also be leveraged to create a loyalty program or even turn an iPad into a register, which enables merchants to add inventory, quickly process payments and wirelessly print receipts.

PayPal Here

Created by arguably the most popular online payment provider, PayPal Here uses a triangular card reader to accept credit card payments from mobile devices. And aside from accepting credit and debit cards, the platform can also be used to issue invoices, track cash payments, process checks and, of course, accept PayPal payments.

Processing checks and issuing invoices are free, but PayPal Here charges merchants a rate of 2.7 percent for card swipes. Merchants can download the app and apply to obtain the card reader for free, and also have the ability to access live customer support through the platform.

Intuit GoPayment

Similar to Square or PayPal Here, Intuit GoPayment enables merchants to accept payments from mobile devices. The solution’s app and credit card reader are free, with credit card transaction fees for Visa, Mastercard, Discover and AmEx charging merchants 2.7 percent.

This platform provides retailers with the ability to text or email receipts to consumers, sync GoPayment transactions with QuickBooks software and manage transactions from the Merchant Service Center.

PayAnywhere

The PayAnywhere payment processing solution can also turn mobile devices into credit card readers. Merchants must download the free app and sign up for the free card reader in order to start accepting credit cards on their iOS and Android devices.

PayAnywhere charges merchants a 2.69 percent fee for swiped credit cards, offers real-time and heat map reporting for credit card and cash transactions, as well as a free merchant portal for deeper consumer insights. Retailers can also earn money by referring PayAnywhere to other merchants.

VeriFone

VeriFone offers a couple of different payment processing options. The company's PAYware Connect platform is a hosted payment processing solution that is cloud-based, and enables merchants to conduct transactions on mobile devices and online.

However, merchants who are looking for a mobile payment solution more similar to Square can also choose to leverage the Sail platform that works on both iOS and Android devices. VeriFone offers a Sail Pro and Sail Go plan, both of which come with a free card reader. The Pro plan comes with a low swipe rate of 1.95 percent, as well as a monthly fee of $9.95, while the Go plan has no monthly fee but comes with a 2.7 swipe rate.

LevelUp

Retailers can use LevelUp to accept payments and set up a loyalty program through a mobile device. LevelUp is an app that works on both iOS and Android devices and enables consumers to link a credit or debit card to their account, in which they receive a unique QR code that can be used to make purchases.

Merchants can accept payments by downloading the LevelUp merchant app or obtaining the LevelUp dock for their counter, and are charged a 2-percent transaction fee per purchase. This solution can also be used to set up a loyalty program, view consumer purchasing analytics, send email receipts, obtain weekly reports and more.

Google Wallet

This mobile application can be used to accept payments at brick-and-mortar stores as well as online. Google Wallet enables consumers to store their credit card information inside their mobile devices and make payments by tapping their phones on readers at physical store locations or by clicking a button on participating sites while surfing the Web.

Merchants can make their businesses Google Wallet-ready by offering contactless payment terminals within brick-and-mortar stores or by adding the Google Wallet button to their websites. Retailers can also utilize this platform to drive traffic by pushing offers that customers can save and redeem with Google Wallet in-stores, or partner Google Wallet with an existing loyalty program to retain more customers.

Dwolla

This payment solution is a little different from those previously mentioned because the focus is on low cost and not mobile. With Dwolla, all transactions less than $10 are free, with all other transactions costing only 25 cents.

Dwolla users can make payments online or in brick-and-mortar locations by connecting their bank accounts to their Dwolla accounts. Merchants can leverage this platform by utilizing the company’s free online, mobile and social tools.

This platform basically cuts out the middle man (or becomes the middle man -- depending on how you look at it) by transferring a customer's money through the Dwolla network directly into the merchant's bank account, so that no plastic cards are required and therefore no credit card fees are charged.

Friday 15 for Web Pros

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 20:00:00 GMT

Friday is the perfect opportunity to take a moment and look back at the most important and interesting business and technology developments of the week – those that will influence you in the future and likely are impacting some aspect of your Web enterprise right now. This week, let’s look at 15 key developments in the world of Web business.

- The Open Commerce Ecosystem of Ebay Arrives
Ebay has been the talk of the Web this week with its X.commerce effort, which aims to connect developers with merchants to create a complete commerce operating system. A few of the integrations announced at the Innovate Developer Conference include those with Facebook (integrating Open Graph functionality through Magento and GSI), Adobe (integrating its digital marketing platform), Kenshoo (which automates digital marketing campaigns) and online bookkeeping tool Outright.

- The Value of Real-Time Search Data
URL shortener bit.ly played its trump card this week – an immense set of real-time data. The company released a reputation monitoring service for enterprise customers based on its search technology which weighs results by cross-platform social engagement. Bit.ly joins several other vendors in the real-time search and analytics space including Topsy and Google.

- Google+ Closes in on Twitter
The Google+ network/platform has surpassed the 40 million user mark, inching ever closer to the 100 million active users of Twitter but still quite a distance from Facebook's 800 million users. Revenue was up 33 percent year-over-year, and quarter revenues were just short of $10 billion for Google, but questions remain about its ability to foster social communities.

- Can Anyone Save Yahoo? Comscore Search Data
Comscore reported that Google’s share of the search market increased a half percentage at the expense of Yahoo – which fell to its lowest search volume levels ever. Perhaps an Alibaba acquisition isn’t such a bad idea, after all. While Yahoo! has a strong foothold in the display advertising market, the network might have seen better days.

- Let’s Take it Offline
Mobile payments company Square, which offers apps that allow merchants to process and manage credit card transaction with a swiping device that plugs in to the headset/microphone jack, announced that it is now processing 2$ billion in payments volume per year. Square also announced that it is dropping several requirements for new Swype merchants.

- Jumping on the KickStarter Bandwagon
Crowdfunding service Kickstarter has seen 1 million people sign up and offer financial support for projects listed on its site. Kickstarter also indicated that of those who have backed projects 89% of them have supported at least one idea that was successful.

- Search Ad Spend Rebounds
SEM and software provider Covario released its global spend search ad spend analysis which indicated that PPC spending was up 26 percent from the previous quarter and 24 percent versus the same period last year.

- A Local Vibe from MapQuest
MapQuest unveiled Vibe this week, a local search/mapping tool which identifies neighborhood-level hot spots. MapQuest Vibe profiles more than 50,000 neighborhoods, 27,000 cities and 50,000 hotspots in the U.S., reaching 98 percent of the population.

- Ad Boosters from GreyStripe
Mobile advertising network GreyStripe released several new industry-focused and social ad units this week dubbed Ad Boosters. The customizable “boosters” allows advertisers to direct users to take specific actions. A retail booster, for example, could include a “Find Store” button, a coupon or buy now button. This is somewhat similar to the way that Google has introduced the +1 button on its display ads.

- Foursquare Gets Real with Radar Notifications
It seems as if the hottest new trend on the Web is in real-time data retrieval, and now location-based social media service Foursquare is hopping on the bandwagon. Earlier this week they announced Radar, a new real-time feature that will sends notifications to users when they're close to businesses that fit into their "to-do lists", or any other Foursquare lists to which they've subscribed. This tool will be especially useful for driving relevant customers to local businesses when they're in a city or area that they're not familiar with.

-Location-based Marketing with Hootsuite
HootSuite acquired location-based marketing tool Geotoko this week. This geo-aggregation tool collects audience information from check-in tools like Facebook Places and Foursquare. The integration of this tool with HootSuite will especially help multiple location brick and mortar businesses better understand audiences, based on data such as location, sentiment and demographic. With this data, businesses will be able to reach out to consumers with specific offers, promotions and campaign adjustments.

- Google Commerce Goes Mobile
Just two years after Google Commerce was launched, this week Google announced Google Commerce Search for mobile. According to Google, the launch of Google Commerce Search for mobile came about after consistently finding an increasing number of shopping queries from mobile phones. Timberland is one of the first Google Commerce for Search customers, and claims that since its mobile-optimized website launched, mobile sales have grown 20 times faster than desktop sales.

- LinkedIn Acquires IndexTank

Linked acquired hosted search service IndexTank this week, which will integrate its technology with LinkedIn’s search. IndexTank’s real-time search technology already powers many searches, such as Reddit.com, Twitvid and Spoke. Currently, LinkedIn claims that it will release key components of IndexTank as open source software, which will allow others to run the IndexTank API.

- Microsoft and Skype Seal the Deal
Microsoft finally made it official with video/chat software application provider Skype after being in talks to buy the company since May. The software giant finally closed the deal and purchased Skype for $8.5 billion. For now, Skype will operate as an independent division, with their offices and employees remaining and over time it will be integrated into Microsoft products like Xbox Live and Windows Live.

- Facebook Friendly
Facebook, the reigning King of social media, recently acquireded the startup friend.ly, the company behind a popular social question-and-answer service featured on the social network. Friend.ly will still exist and operate as a standalone service on the site, while the company’s team will begin focusing on new projects at Facebook.