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Groupon launches Breadcrumb, officially enters the point-of-sale system market
A few months ago, Groupon quietly scooped up a New York-based startup by the name of Breadcrumb, which, back then, was presumably regarded as a sign of POS-related things to come from the deal-sharing company. Today, nearly five months after its snappy acquisition, Groupon's officially relaunching launching Breadcrumb, marking the outfit's formal entrance into the point-of-sale game with its own iPad-based system. Groupon says Breadcrumb will be a great choice for all business owners interested, thanks in large part to its "easy-to-use and affordable" POS iPad system -- one which will start off at $99 per month and will include an all-in-one Breadbox that packs all the necessary tools to get up and running, as well as handy 24/7 support from restaurant and bar geniuses. You can get a better feel for what Breadcrumb's all about in the video below -- and please, please don't forget to clean after yourself.
Daily Update for October 10, 2012
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Groupon launches iPad-based restaurant point-of-sale system
Groupon is primarily known as a company that provides special deals to consumers via a free app, but they've now branched out into the restaurant point-of-sale (POS) system market with a new offering called Breadcrumb. Breadcrumb runs only on the Apple iPad, and client establishments pay US$99 a month to run the service on one iPad or $199 a month for two iPad kiosks. Larger restaurants get a discount, with the cost for five iPads at $299 per month and up to 10 iPads at $399 per month. Clients can either buy their own iPads or purchase iPads through Groupon at cost. Breadcrumb has been tested at about a hundred New York locations, but today the system launches across the US. Items such as cash drawers, receipt printers and the bane of chefs everywhere -- kitchen order printers -- can be added to the system easily. Unlike competing systems, there's no long-term commitment to use the system. The system literally takes only minutes to learn, it's easy to enter menu items and prices into Breadcrumb, and the system can be used by managers to dive into sales, food cost, labor cost information or get reports via email. With Breadcrumb, Groupon is not only going head-to-head with traditional restaurant POS providers such as OpenTable, Aloha and MICROS, but will compete with mobile payment leader Square with a much more restaurant-oriented offering. [via AppleInsider]
Square competitor Groupon Payments launches today, promises lowest cost for retailers
Popular deal website Groupon is venturing into the world of smart phone-based credit card payments today, launching the Groupon Payments initiative nationwide after a successful pilot program is the San Francisco Bay Area earlier this year. Groupon's boasting a guaranteed lowest cost pricing to merchants using Groupon Payments for credit card transactions -- MasterCard, Visa, and Discover will cost retailers 1.8 percent of credit card sales, plus a $0.15 per transaction fee, while American Express will cost three percent of credit card sales, plus a $0.15 per transaction fee. The biggest competition in the space comes from Square, headed by former Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, which charges a flat 2.75 percent rate on all transactions against all cards, though PayPal, Intuit, and Verifone all offer similar services. Today's news matches up directly with leaks we saw back in May, adding on that merchants will see the day's credit card purchases credited to their bank accounts overnight, rather than waiting two to three business days (per standard practice). Beyond credit card services, Groupon's Merchants app also accepts Groupon daily deals, which helps elucidate why Groupon would be interested in entering the mobile credit card payments market in the first place (beyond it being a lucrative market unto itself, of course). Interested parties can sign up over on Groupon's website, and snag the free payments app right here. Finally -- finally -- you'll be able to sell all those $10 gift certificates to Chili's you've been hoarding. Perhaps charge $5 a pop for their $10 value and ... is this a paradox? This might be a paradox.
Groupon reportedly experimenting with Square competitor
Square, PayPal, Intuit, Verifone -- the mobile payments field (and we're not talking wallets here) is seriously crowded already. So, the question is then, why on Earth would Groupon want to join the fray? We're not entirely sure, but VentureBeat is reporting the coupon service is preparing to do just that. According to a source within the company, Groupon is testing card-reading dongle and payment platform with surprisingly aggressive pricing. According to the insider, transaction fees will be 1.8 percent, on top of a $0.15 base charge. By comparison, square charges a flat 2.75 percent. Interestingly, the source also claims that Groupon is handing out, not just free readers, but free iPod touches to plug them into. The move makes obvious sense since the company snatched up Kima Labs, makers of TapBuy, in February. Besides, it could easily integrate its discount offers with the platform as a value added service. None of this is confirmed just yet but, we certainly wont be surprised if this rumor pans out.
Nokia announces string of new Lumia app partnerships at CTIA
CTIA is gaining momentum, and Nokia has just announced a slew of new app partnerships for its Lumia line at the show. Sports fans can look forward to PGA Tour, a dedicated app to cover the golfing action, while the ESPN sports hub will get a series of updates, plus an exclusive Lumia-only Fantasy Football app in autumn. Gamers will get new treats from EA -- including FIFA, NBA Jam and more -- and Rovio, which is creating a dedicated development team to create titles for Nokia Windows phones. Other notable names on the list to either get a new app or an update include Groupon, PayPal, Time, NewsWeek and more. Be sure to poke the source link for the full list.
Groupon offers KIRF iPad for $248, proves it's the best deals site in the universe
Why does one thumb its nose at a $6 billion offer from Google? 'Cause you can make a mighty fine sum from hawking Android-equipped KIRF iPads, apparently.
