M-payment: Square Making Card Case Evolve
- Square has been making some changes in its mobile purse, Card Case, a first version of which was launched in May 2011 (for iPhone and Android). Originally designed to enable storing of several virtual cards linked to different merchant accounts, the customer only had to bring his Smartphone closer to the adapted reader and select the card’s tab to pay.
- The new version for iOS 5 makes the payment act even easier. The user specifies the merchants with which he wishes to enable the auto-payment feature and no longer has to show his phone to pay. His account and the related tab will automatically open within 100 feet from the merchant’s POS devise (geofencing).
- The merchant has access to the list of near-by customers; his name and verification of the picture are sufficient to initiate the payment. The customer also receives a receipt.
- Square has worked in improving CRM features for this 2.2 version. Merchants will be able to reward their most regular customers through promotional offers, discount vouchers, etc. to be displayed using Card Case on their next purchases.
- Some 800,000 Square readers have already been sold (or about 10% of Visa and MasterCard-affiliated US merchants). For now, the number of points of sales where Card Case is accepted remains limited (20,000 stores in big towns such as San Francisco or New York). Nevertheless, merchants could be attracted to possible CRM improvement allowed by Card Case: the customer does not have to interact with the salesman for payment; the latter can rather focus on improving customer relation.
- However, concerns with Square’s security have not vanished and this solution relies only but on trust.