Groupon Payments comes to Android, starts catching up to Square

Use Groupon Payments for your business? You just got a little more choice -- the popular deal broker just updated its Android app to support credit card transactions. The update brings the fledgling payment service a little closer to Square, which has been available on Android since 2010. If the iOS rates hold, swiping plastic through Groupon Merchants will set retailers back a mere $0.15 per transaction, plus 1.8 percent of the charge for Visa, MasterCard and Discover, or three percent for American Express. The update also boasts improved analytics, giving retailers the ability to check transaction history, daily sales reports and peek at revenue trends.

[Source: Engadget]

Starbucks switches to Square for payments, invests $25 million and will support Pay with Square

While Square's mobile payment processing platform has already picked up some major players in retail to go along with more than a million small businesses, its biggest shot in the arm to date is a new partnership with Starbucks. The chain will use Square to process credit card payments in nearly 7,000 US locations along with investing $25 million in the company, while Starbucks president, chairman and CEO Howard Shulz is joining its Board of Directors. Also notable for Square is that this fall Starbucks will be pushing features like its Pay with Square app that lets customers pay via iOS and Android apps, as well as the Square Directory of local businesses. In a letter, Square CEO Jack Dorsey pushed the platform as a way enhance local businesses and communities, but we'll see how friendly your local coffeeshop employees are when a familiar green logo shares their payment processor.

[Source: Engadget]