Square Announces Faster Chip Card Speeds
September 26 2016 - 11:25AM
Business Wire
Today Square, the company unwilling to accept the status quo for
local businesses, announced that it reduced the speed of their chip
card reader by 25% from 5.7 seconds to 4.2 seconds (measured from
when a card has been dipped to when payment is complete). Square
also unveiled its goal to further reduce that speed to around 3
seconds as it continues shaving off transaction time through
software updates that get automatically pushed to business owners’
devices. (News agencies report average chip speeds anywhere from 8
seconds to 13 seconds, though there isn’t one consistent
methodology for measuring transaction speed.)
Nearly one year ago, the U.S. began a transition to chip cards,
riddled with hurdles like masking tape covering chip slots at big
box stores and lengthy lines of customers waiting at the register
to retrieve their cards. “Consumers and business owners alike
loathe waiting for chip cards to process. And we, at Square, feel
the same. But it doesn’t have to be this way,” said Jesse
Dorogusker, Square’s Hardware Lead said in a blogpost.
Square is in a unique position to tackle this challenge because
they design both the hardware and software in-house. This allows
engineers to optimize the entire system at once and push the reader
even faster. “We’re committed to saving time for our sellers and
the customers they serve. Conversations with business owners should
be about the delicious cheeseburger you ate or the new haircut you
just stopped in for, not the amount of time it takes to pay for
them,” Dorogusker continued.
Chip cards are reaching ubiquity in the United States — over 75%
of cards processed on Square now contain a chip, up from around 40%
a year ago. Square built a $49 contactless and chip reader designed
for the consumer with a simple and compact feel. Sellers from Santa
Fe to St. Louis have ordered more than a half a million readers and
are accepting new payments like chip cards as well as contactless
payments (like Apple Pay and Android Pay).
Square has seen particular traction with contactless payments at
major festivals and events like Coachella where more than 10% of
card transactions were contactless, compared to the industry
average of 1%. The BottleRock festival saw rates of 14% and most
recently at Kanye West's pop-up shops 7% of card transactions were
contactless. The San Francisco store processed 28%, Dallas and
Houston were at 14%, and Miami was just over 8%.
About Square, Inc.
Square creates tools that help sellers of all sizes start, run,
and grow their businesses. Square's point-of-sale service offers
tools for every part of running a business, from accepting credit
cards and tracking inventory, to real-time analytics and invoicing.
Square also offers sellers financial and marketing services,
including small business financing and customer engagement tools.
Businesses and individuals use Square Cash, an easy way to send and
receive money, as well as Caviar, a food delivery service for
popular restaurants. Square was founded in 2009 and is
headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in the United States,
Canada, Japan, and Australia.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160926006024/en/
Square, Inc.Media:press@squareup.com
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