Mobile payments processing platform Square has been used by a variety of individuals and businesses, from charities to taxis to food trucks to political campaigns. Next up—art fairs and farmers’ markets.

The company says that at Etsy’s New York’s Spring Handmade Cavalcade last weekend in Brooklyn, over 90% of the vendors used Square to accept payments. And this weekend, Square says that many vendors at Unique LA, the largest independent fashion market in the country, will use Square to process card payments. Unique LA expects over one and a half million dollars to be spent in its market over the weekend.

It’s not surprising that Square is being used by independent purveyors at fairs and markets. The company’s smartphone dongle and companion payments app makes taking credit cards easy. The payments app has been a favorite amongst independent workers, merchants and small businesses for the past few years.

As reported a few weeks ago, Square is now processing $5 billion in annual payments (or around $416 million in payments per month), which is up from $4 billion in annual payments in March. And payment volume is up 25 percent over the past month. The company also just started making funds available in merchants’ bank accounts the next business morning (for any sales made before 5 pm), while other merchant processors can take 2 to 5 business days to get merchants their money.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Last year, we wrote about Copious, an eBay-like marketplace that leveraged your social graph on Facebook. The site aimed to use your social graph from Facebook to make the marketplace experience that you’d find on Amazon or eBay more social, allowing buyers and sellers to see if friends in common, previous purchases, social reviews and more. Today, the company is launching a new version of its marketplace, focused exclusively on fashion and with a number of new personalization features.

Copious now asks shoppers who join the site to connect through Facebook or Twitter and to follow five trends that fit their style, everything from color-blocking and vintage wear. You’ll also be suggested people to follow on the site that match your chosen trends. By following trends and people, shoppers will get a more socially curated experience every time they visit.

In addition, Copious will used this information to give users suggestions of products sold on the site that match their personal style. In particular, the startup says it is focusing on allowing popular fashion bloggers the ability to sell some of their looks on the site.

In terms of the merchant experience, you can still see how many followers a merchant has, who has liked and bought from the merchant, photos and more.

Copious, which raised $2 million in funding from Foundation Capital, Google Ventures, and BlackBerry Partners Fund, was founded in January 2011 by former Mobshop CEO Jim Rose, Critical Path VP of mobile strategy Rob Zuber, and former Facebook head of marketing Jonathan Ehrlich. All three worked at MobShop, which was a group-buying site that launched during the bubble.

Since testing the new version of the marketplace, Copious says it has seen a 100% increase in user engagement on the site and a more than 250% increase in month-over-month transactions. The company has also integrated Pinterest into the shopping experience, allowing users to pin their favorite items on the site.

Facebook and commerce don’t necessarily go hand in hand. Some e-commerce ventures who have leveraged Facebook as a platform for buying have flopped. But other reports point to a potentially lucrative model in integrating Facebook into the shopping experience. Clearly Copious is hoping to be part of the latter group.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Online retailer Amazon is extending its Trade-In Program today to also cover CDs – you know, those round, shiny things collecting dust in the back of your closet? Starting now, customers can send in their old CDs to Amazon in exchange for Amazon.com Gift Cards, which can then used to purchase anything on Amazon.com, including, of course, any of Amazon’s 19 million MP3′s.

The Amazon Trade-In Program, for those unfamiliar, is a service that allows customers to send in items to a third-party merchant in exchange for Amazon gift cards. The program currently supports a wide variety of merchandise including movies, textbooks, video games, electronics (including phones, iPads, iPods, Kindles, non-Kindles, laptops, etc.), and more. The items can be packed up and shipped in one box, so if you want to throw your old iPod on top of your CD collection, you can now do that too.

Trade-ins take somewhere between 6 to 10 business days to process, depending on how you shipped them in (e.g., UPS, Post Office). Once verified, you’ll be notified that your item was accepted by the merchant, which you can track in your Trade-In account.

Although the addition of CDs to the program is being announced this morning, the Trade-in website isn’t yet showing them as an option when you go to list an item, nor are they available yet for browsing through in the site’s navigation.

Also currently unavailable is pricing information – that is, how much you’ll be able to get for your CDs once sent in. Surely pricing will be variable depending on artist, we would guess. After all, your Beatles CD will probably sell fast…your Barry Manilow, not so much.

We’ve reached out to Amazon for more details on this, and will update when we hear back.

Image credit: miskan, flickr

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Braintree, an online payments provider, is debuting a set of new tools for mobile app developers that allow merchants to accept payments within a mobile app, rather than through a web browser. For background, Braintree powers and automates online payments for merchants and companies online. The company provides a merchant account, payment gateway, recurring billing, credit card storage, support for mobile and international payments, and PCI Compliance solutions.

The new offering from Braintree helps developers avoid PCI compliance issues by encrypting sensitive credit card data when it is entered by the user on their mobile device. The encrypted data is passed from the merchant’s server to Braintree for processing, and only Braintree can decrypt the information using a private key, preventing the merchant from being exposed to sensitive credit card data. The libraries support both mobile phones as well as tablet devices running Android, iOS, and Windows Phone 7 operating systems.

Braintree maintains that the customer entering the credit card information on the app is the last person to see it. Other mobile app payments solutions typically use a web browser masked as an app, says the company.

Braintree’s client list includes LivingSocial, 37signals, OpenTable, Fab.com, GitHub, Airbnb, Heroku, Engine Yard, Animoto, Shopify and HotelTonight. Braintree is processing more than $4 billion in annual credit card volume and is adding more than 100 new merchants a month. The company also raised $34 million in funding last year from Accel.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Peecho, a Dutch startup that enables anyone to sell professionally printed products from their website, mobile or desktop apps, has raised $750,000 in financing from Peak Capital and DHG Holding to boost development and marketing of its embeddable ‘cloud print button’ service.

Basically, their solution lets anyone sell digital content as physical products (think magazines, photo books, canvas prints and whatnot), by helping its customers hook into a network of professional print production facilities.

Peecho takes a cut of every sale realized by its customers, which include companies like Hyves, KODAK, Efteling and Issuu.

The company explains that it executes production orders on the merchant’s behalf, but collects the payments from consumers. Hence, they make an average margin of 20 percent on every order, although they point out this depends on the type of product.

Peecho says it plans to introduce paid monthly plans that include premium features in the future, along with prepaid wholesale credit in return for a discount.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Intuit is the latest company to enable e-commerce on Facebook, announcing today that businesses using the company’s Websites software can create a store on the social network.

Intuit SimpleStore for Facebook will automatically sync the merchant’s website and Facebook page, loading inventory and enabling payments. Business owners can accept credit or debit card payments directly on Facebook, via Intuit, with no added log-ins required for the customer. All transactions are powered by Intuit’s payments back-end.

Intuit SimpleStore for Facebook is available through Intuit Websites, a service that allows merchants and businesses to set up a website and payments platform.

While a Facebook e-commerce product makes sense, Intuit is pretty late to the game on this. Payvment, ShopIgniter, BigCommerce, and many others have been offering this technology to merchants for years.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Foursquare is giving away a free $25 credit to American Express cardholders through a new promotion taking place on November 26th, aka “Small Business Saturday.” (Yes, everyone has their own Black Friday spinoff now). To get the credit, Foursquare users have to spend $25 at a local merchant and check-in using the mobile app.

There are “hundreds of thousands” of participating merchants across the U.S., according to the map in the Foursquare blog post.

To claim the deal, American Express users will first need to sync their account with Foursquare at sync.americanexpress.com/foursquare. Afterwards, the available merchants will appear in the “Explore” tab in the Foursquare app and on the Foursquare homepage, starting on Saturday the 26th.

In order to claim the credit, after setup, users will need tap the new “load to card” button that appears upon check-in. To save some hassle, you may want wait to check in until after you know you plan to spend the $25.00 at the merchant. Update: Foursquare says you *have to* check in on Foursquare prior to checkout. You know, just to make things harder, I guess.

The credit will show up on your next Amex statement, five business days after your purchase.

Foursquare isn’t the only social media service American Express has tapped in promotion of this Small Business Saturday thing which it created via its American Express OPEN group. The company recently appeared as a Klout perk too. If you’re not into Foursquare and Klout, there’s also a Facebook page where you can find businesses and claim your credit.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Earlier this year, Square debuted a virtual card case that consumers fill with ‘cards’ of all the merchants they visit and buy from who accept Square. These mobile cards include locations, merchant contact info, coupons, order and purchase history and more. One of the more interesting features was the ability to ‘pay with your name.’ In a merchant’s card within the case, you can press a “use tab” button which allows the frequent customer to essentially put a purchase on their virtual tab with Square at the merchant. Today, Square is launching a new version of its Card Case iOS app that integrates iOS5 support for geofencing.

So once you opt-in one time to the geofencing feature in the app, when you (and your phone) are within 100 meters of a Square merchant you can simple walk into the store, say your name at checkout and you are good to go with the payment. You don’t need to pull your phone out at all or open the app.

Here’s how it works. Once Square’s technology detects you are near a merchant enabled store, the Merchant’s Square app will open a tab for the customer and show that customer’s account, name and photo as nearby. When the customer purchases an item, they say their name, and the cashier can verify the photo matches the customer and press the transact button and the charge will go through. The customer will get a push notification with the amount of the charge as well.

With the new version of the card case app, merchants can also add more information on the actual loyalty cards for each business, which Square’s Megan Quinn calls ‘dynamic representations of the business.” While previously you could see the merchants’ names, location, and contact info, Square has added the ability to add menus, photos, click-to-call functionality, directions to the business. Square has also added Twitter integration to link their Twitter account and Tweets, see comments and reviews from customers.

Additionally, Square has launched a new way to discover merchants on the app. Previously you could see a directory of merchants nearby, but today, Square has added to the app a list of the most popular spots that Square customers are frequenting.

Quinn says that to date, over 20,000 merchants have joined the directory since it opened up to the public in August. And Square has seen steady growth in the number of transactions taking place via the card case since the app came out of beta. Square is also in the process of extending this new functionality to the Android app for Card case.

As mobile payments heat up, Square is doubling down on product development and new features. In early October, the company announced that it would be dropping its new user limits. The payments service is now processing $2 billion in payments volume per year and t date, Square has been activated by 800,000 merchants which is up from 500,000 card readers shipped in May. Square’s merchants are now 10% of the reach of the Visa/MasterCard world. In August, Square updated its mobile apps for a more fast, and seamless payments experience.

Next up could be international expansion. Already European competitors are popping up, so it should be interesting to see where Square can launch its payments technology next.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

8thBridge – formerly Alvenda – provides a social shopping platform where large retailers can engage customers inside Facebook and on the merchant’s ecommerce site, as well. Customers are empowered to shop with merchants on their own terms in a shopping experience that emphasizes three P’s:

• Portable – The shopping experience happens in the Facebook News Feed, so it travels from newsfeed to newsfeed. When a customer shares a product or purchase with Facebook friends, 8thBridge attaches the store so their friends can pick up something for themselves. In fact, 80 percent of total shopping across the 8thBridge platform is engagement driven by fans sharing the store with friends.
• Personalized – Through 8thBridge’s Fan Page Stores, shoppers can create a personalized wish list, which can be shared so that those items can be purchased by friends. Fan Page stores allow brands to create targeted, customized storefronts for their most loyal customers.
• Participatory – Shoppers can share newsfeed stories with friends who can also shop in the same store. On the merchant’s own ecommerce site, customers login using their Facebook credentials and have a similar experience.

8thBridge Client Roster

The company primarily covers three major sectors: fashion, retail and entertainment. The client roster is stellar and includes such well-known brands as Land’s End, Delta Airlines, 1-800-FLOWERS, 7 For All Mankind, Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox. In fact, 8thBridge works with over 50 leading brands that, in total, have created 30,000 social shopping stores inside Facebook.

If you’ve ever purchased flowers from the 1-800-FLOWERS Facebook store, for example, you were using 8thBridge’s app. Similarly, if you’ve purchased airline tickets on Delta’s Ticket Counter app, you’ve interacted with the company’s product.

Competitors

8thBridge runs with a rather small pack of social shopping platform providers: Milyoni – which I covered earlier in the week – ShopIgniter, Moontoast and Payvment, which I’ll be covering in subsequent posts.

What makes the company unique is that shopping is done via newsfeed stories – shoppers can purchase a product directly from their newsfeed without ever leaving Facebook. The transaction is handled securely, but fully within Facebook’s ecosystem.

Stores tend to be very campaign driven – flash stores, movie launches, etc – so they don’t tend to live for long periods of time.

The following is a series of screenshots that outline the purchase process.

The shopping process starts with a News Feed item being broadcast from the company fan page.

Click on the News Feed item and the Fan Store opens all without requiring the user to leave their Facebook home page.

The secure transaction is processed without leaving Facebook.

8thBridge provides brands with a Facebook Fan Store.

Customers can share purchases with friends.

Friends see the story shared in their News Feed and the cycle begins again.

Examples of 8thBridge Apps

As mentioned earlier, the 8thBridge platform powers Delta Airline’s Ticket Counter app in Facebook. The app allows users to search, book and share flights within the social network. Impressed with the app’s uniqueness, AdAge included it in the “Book of Tens” as one of the top 10 marketing apps for 2010.

The company also helped with the launch of Transformers 3 by building an app that allowed the purchase of movie tickets. Customers could share the purchase with friends and view a trailer inside the app within the News Feed.

Company Funding

In the past two years, 8thBridge has received two major rounds of funding: $5 million in November 2009 and a Series B in March 2011 for $10 million. 8thBridge’s primary funding sources are Splitrock Partners and Trident Capital, both well-known for providing funding for technology startups.

Product Cost

There is no out of the box or “one size fits all” solution from 8thBridge. Price depends on the client’s need. Typically, companies can expect to pay $1,000s per month.

Company Information

8thBridge, founded in 2008 as Alvenda, is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota and is led by a team of executives with domain expertise in ecommerce, direct marketing, social media, and online publishing. They include:

• Wade Gerten, CEO, former VP at Oracle
• Jamie Thingelstad, COO/CTO, former CTO of the Wall Street Journal Digital Network
• Nick Bellomo, CFO, former VP at Trident Capital
• Jon Kubo, CPO, former CIO at Wet Seal

Contact Information

Currently, 8thBridge is focused on US-based markets, so nothing of an international nature exists just yet. Interested parties may contact the company by phone – 612-927-3434 or via email.

Article courtesy of Social Commerce Today

When it comes to local commerce, the ultimate prize everyone is going after right now is how to close the redemption loop. The redemption loop starts when a consumer sees an ad or an offer for a local merchant, and is completed when the consumer makes a purchase and that purchase can be tracked back to the offer. If you know who is actually redeeming offers and how much they are spending, you can be much smarter about tweaking and targeting those offers.

Groupon, LivingSocial, and other daily deal sites have created enormous value by pushing the redemption loop the furthest. When someone buys a daily deal, for instance, that translates into cash for the merchant. But for the vast majority of their deals Groupon and LivingSocial do not track whether or not they are ever redeemed, much less the amount each consumer actually spends at the store or restaurant once they show up.

In order to complete the circle and track offers all the way through redemptions, it is necessary to either tap into the payment system or create an alternative way to track redemptions. Different companies are tackling this problem in different ways, but they almost all rely on a shift from emailed coupons to offers delivered through mobile apps.

Next Jump CEO Charlie Kim, who recently partnered with LivingSocial to power daily deals across his commerce network, sees a shift in targeting from broadcasting deals to narrowcasting them. “Blasting out a deal to everyone in New York is not targeting,” he says. “When you broadcast too much in any category, it is just a lot of noise. Email response rates have plummeted for everyone across the industry. What used to be 10% response rates even a year ago, now you are talking the 1% to 2% level.” The constant barrage of emails from Groupon, LivingSocial, and every daily deal copycat is creating user fatigue that is visible in declining response rates.

And that is why mobile is so appealing. If you can send deal notifications to people’s phones based on their exact location and nearby deals, you have the beginnings of narrowcasting. Later on, companies will figure out how to layer on ways to target by income, gender, and other factors as well.

Mobile and local commerce go hand in hand. In a few cities, Groupon is testing out Groupon Now and LivingSocial is offering Instant Deals. In both cases, the deals appear on mobile apps and can be redeemed instantly, rather than having to wait a day for the deal to go live, as is the case with their regular daily deals. The downside of these deals is that Groupon and LivingSocial cannot take advantage of their existing deal inventory and they have to actually provision participating merchants with iPhones and iPads so that they can accept the deals and Groupon/LivingSocial can track them. Yelp is doing something similar where you have to show a redemption code to the merchant from your phone.

Foursquare and Facebook are taking a different approach through their separate partnerships with American Express. Since AmEx is the payment system, it records deal redemptions along with the actual payments. Merchants and consumers don’t have to do anything different from what they normally do. Pay with a credit card and your deal is redeemed. Except it only works if you have an AmEx card and the discount is credited to your account later.

Google is trying to link Google Offers to its Google Wallet, which requires an NFC chip in your phone and an NFC reader at the merchant’s checkout. It has the advantage of working with MasterCard, Citi, and other large payment processors. But it also depends on a brand new technology that will take a long time to become widely available.

The key to closing the redemption loop is definitely payments. Investor Chris Sacca recently told Kevin Rose in a video interview the best reason why Twitter should buy Square is because Twitter has the broadest reach to distribute offers and deals, and Square has a built-in way to track redemption. This was just an off the cuff remark in a friendly chat (Twitter isn’t even in this business yet), but it makes sense.

We are moving from a world of online ads that produce impressions and clicks to online and mobile offers that produce real sales. If the deal companies can figure out a way to actually measure those sales, it could open up local commerce in a massive way that makes what they’ve done so far look like child’s play.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch