Mobile e-commerce? No monthly fees? Text and email receipts? Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus!
As someone who builds complex web sites for a living, there is no doubt that the most complex (and most in-demand) feature of any modern site is e-commerce. Unless your company is primarily an e-commerce company — and therefore you tackled the web sales thing on Day 1 — e-commerce can be a very costly, time-consuming and complicated discussion.
Yes, there are a myriad of options out there. And yes, in some respects, the options are getting easier and cheaper all the time.
That said, if you want a professional face to your customer, PayPal buttons and klunky template storefronts don't cut it.
With the gold rush to mobile now in full swing, I should not have been as surprised as I was this morning when I fell onto this new gadget from a company called Square. According to their web site and PR materials, once you plug in the little square device, you:
- Can be up and running in 60 seconds;
- Swipe the card (so no threat of online fraud or down internet connections):
- Get an immediate text and email receipt;
- Have a secure gateway; and,
- Can use a rewards program.
No surprise that Square features an iPhone as its mobile device of choice. If this works as advertised, this would make the iPhone a game-changing e-commerce device that even Google couldn't rival.
Japan has been ahead of this game for some time. While we still are using paper tickets for many live events, the Japanese are used to having a bar code scanned from their mobile phone screen at the front door — and poof, in you go. No scalpers, no "where'd I leave the tickets," nada. Clean, simple and entirely trackable.
Well, now it seems you can do the same thing with e-commerce. And folks, if this works, this is brilliant for everyone who sells things at a live event. Concerts? Sure! Farmer's Markets? Even better!
Check this out and give me your feedback. And please tell me other similar stuff you've seen out there that my clients might be interested in checking out.
Go to Square's web site and check it out!