Coupon giant Groupon has stepped up its assault on the payments market, striking a deal to integrate its Breadcrumb service with Ingenico and VeriFone point-of-sale terminals.
Chicago-based Groupon moved into payments last year with a Square-like app and dongle-based system for turning phones and tablets into card payment acceptance devices.
Now the company has set its sights on the old-fashioned till, integrating its Breadcrumb service with VeriFone and Ingenico terminals in a bid to win business from firms that already accept card payments or are just not ready for mobile-based services.
Merchants have three options: they can configure their existing VeriFone or Ingenico machine with Breadcrumb, buy a Verifone vx520 from Groupon for $150, or rent one to own for $15 per month on a year-long contract.
Sean Harper, director of product, Groupon, says: "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.
"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."