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Mobile checkout is hitting the masses

While on my whirlwind trip to NJ, WI, IN, and IL — all in 2 weeks — visiting family and friends, I ran across an article about mobile point of service devices being adopted by a major retailer.

Following up on my earlier posts on mobile point of service devices, such as Square, I mentioned that you can expect that the adoption of POS devices to ramp up quickly.  With fall arts and crafts fairs around the corner, you still have time to try out the free POS devices available for small business owners.  More and more customers will understand and have trust in the use of these POS devices.  Just this week, there was an article regarding Nordstrom’s and JcPenney’s using mobile POS devices.  They will still have registers for cash transactions, but you know that if Penney’s is going with POS devices, in this case the iPad to check out and phasing out most registers by 2014, then you also know that America’s checkout behaviors will change as well.

Click to go to the full article.

If you haven’t explored showing your clutches at Arts and Crafts Fairs, please check this post.  Check your local and regional listings for Arts and Crafts Fairs now in order to save by pre-registering.  Many have had great success showing their clutches at juried and non-juried shows.  It’s great exposure and you can use the photos to market your items.  One of my favorite recent photos of booths featured these beautiful bright and modern clutches.  Linda at Mi Casa Bella had lots of interest and sales at her booth.  I love the display and color layout here.  Linda has such a singular vision in her creative aesthetics.  If you have any photos of your clutches shown at a fair, market or boutique, send them to me and I would be happy to post them.

Mi Casa Bella has also been featured in several magazines. Head over to Linda’s shop and check out her renowned pillows and clutches.

Hope your summer is going great!  One more week and my kids are back to school.  THANK YOU teachers!!!  🙂

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August 1, 2012 Posted by | WhileBabyNaps General Updates | , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Paypal is throwing down with Square — and YOU benefit!

Exciting news!  Paypal is going to introduce their own mobile paying device that will be similar to Square.  Please note:  SquareUp.com is the domain name that the company “Square Inc.” or “Square” uses.  SquareUp, Square Up, Square up, and Square are all used through the media interchangeably.  They really should just change their main domain to Square.com.  I don’t know why they are doing the reverse and directing it all to SquareUp.com … anyways … just my humble opinion.  🙂

It is not yet known what features it will offer beyond those of Square, however, Paypal will have a lower transaction fee thereby undercutting what Square is currently charging.

Will Square answer back by lowering their transaction charge rate as well?  It’s yet to be seen, but this is very good news for small business owners, mom and pop shops, and those of you selling your clutches at arts and crafts fairs and bazaars.  It will be ubiquitous and your customers will be able to pay you with their credit cards.  You will be able to accept credit cards easily without any start-up or ongoing maintenance costs!

Check out the article.

More companies offering mobile payment devices means lower charges you'll have to pay!

Since Paypal is the #1 online credit card payment processor in the world, this news is huge.  The public trust is there with paying via Paypal’s secure encrypted network.  So for Paypal to come out with this mobile paying device, the adoption rate will be high.  It will probably link up with your existing Paypal accounts and you’ll have all your payments at one source.  This is seriously going to effect Square and I anticipate them doing something to mitigate this.

If you haven’t used Square already – a free device – I would like to poke a hot poker and get you to try it out.  Did I mention it’s free?  🙂  You can grow your business and craft fairs, school and church sales, home hostess parties ….

Oh, and it’s free..  🙂

March 15, 2012 Posted by | Helpful Tips | , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Big changes coming for consumers and retailers…

I swear Jack Dorsey doesn’t need the additional press, but I just love where he and the team at Square are headed.  It’s going to revolutionize the transactions between retailers and consumers.

Over a year ago, I blogged about how you can easily and without any upfront costs accept credit cards via SquareUp.  Read this post to refresh.  I further expanded on that with crucial business tips for you at this post.  I then updated you with SquareUp’s changes allowing you to accept more than $500/month.  (This was my sticking point.)

So now comes an industry changer.  Square is coming to replace registers nationwide.  (Click on image to get to full article.)

This will change customer's expectations, and therefore, behaviors.

Why does this matter to you?  Because:

1. The majority of merchants in the US will buy and use a tablet or a mobile Point of Service device.  This means you, the consumer will start to see this in stores like bookstores, coffee shops, boutiques, bridal salons, nail salons and the like.  You, the consumer will become acquainted and trust this new way of paying for your goods and services.  The old register will be seen as antiquated because of the ease and flexibility of a mobile point of service device.  It’s like that kitchen phone that hung on the wall with the spiral cord that always got twisted and you had to untwist it (that was kinda fun, though).  It was the central location to make your calls but you were tethered to it.  Even house phones of today are cordless.  We wouldn’t even think of buying a phone with a cord.  Not sure if they sell them anymore….   If you have been to an Apple(R) store lately, you will see that they use a mobile POS.  It’s really amazing how easy and consumer-friendly it is.  You no longer feel like cattle at the trough.

2.  Because you, the consumer, don’t have to carry that amount of cash (who wants a Constanza wallet? 🙂 ) you can buy more knowing that merchant at the crafts fair will accept your credit card.  The average transaction is $75!!!  Research has shown that transactions are larger (ie people buy more) when they use a credit card vs. cash.  So a mobile POS device can also increase your dollars collected.

So because of Square coming into shops in this year to replace the register, you can expect that the adoption of the SquareUp device will ramp up quickly.  If you are showing your clutches at an Arts Fair or Craft Show, I highly recommend getting a SquareUp device.  It’s free, it’s easy and you start accepting credit cards with your mobile phone.  You will have an advantage over other sellers if you accept credit cards and they don’t.  What’s more?  You don’t have to shell thousands of dollars for the upkeep of those machines, buy ink, buy paper, etc…  You don’t have to spend anything to start accepting credit cards.

Good luck and if you’ve tried it, convo me and let me know how it has worked for you.  If you haven’t, then why not?

~Winn

March 6, 2012 Posted by | Helpful Tips | , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

   

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