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Groupon was about as big as it could get six months ago. Almost everyone knows what it is and many consumers admit to having at least a mild addiction to the daily discount service. In October of 2012, the company expanded its service by getting into the point-of-sale industry with the purchase of Breadcrumb. Today, the company announced further investment in retailer finance with Groupon POS, a mobile payment app aimed at local merchants.
According to TechCrunch, Groupon has just launched its mobile payment service to act as a dashboard for retailers to make and track payments. The company plans to stay on top of the industry by “diversifying beyond the daily deals” service.
In a recent earnings report, Groupon noted that it has 41.7 million active users. North America is the company’s largest single market with 45 percent of transactions taking place on mobile devices. Groupon POS will add more options to mobile device users on both consumer and retail sides of the industry.
The app is similar to Breadcrumb, but with a more generalized and simpler design. Users can swipe credit cards with a compatible “Dongle” similar to the one popularized by Square. It can work with a cash drawer and printer to make point-of-sale purchases complete.
Groupon POS charges 1.8 percent in fees for Visa, Mastercard, and Discover (2.3 percent when keyed instead of swiped), plus an additional $0.15 per transaction. Non-Groupon merchants pay a higher fee of 2.2 percent per swipe, plus the $0.15 per-transaction fee. In comparison, Square offers a flat 2.75 fee per swipe or $275 per month for active users.
Groupon POS is available in the App Store today. Download it for free.
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