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Jack Dorsey: Today Starbucks Signed up for Square

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Re: Jack Dorsey: Today Starbucks Signed up for Square

#31

Post by philip1209 »

faramarz wrote: post #14

This announcement makes me happy, for Square and Jack Dorsey as a young business leader. I love everything about the business idea, execution, design and tone of the overall strategy. Noteworthy points from the press release The partnership terms include: - Customers will be able to use Pay with Square, Square’s payer application, from participating company operated U.S. Starbucks stores later this fall, and find nea…

Also, this is a big win for Jim McKelvey.

(disclosure: I am a WashU student and Cultivation Capital intern)

Re: Jack Dorsey: Today Starbucks Signed up for Square

#33

Post by erikpukinskis »

medinismo wrote: post #21

I really do not see the benefit of this deal. Square - sure, another bunch of retailers. Starbux, not so much. NFC will take over and then square is out. can someone explain?

Square works on any phone with GPS, which is not true of NFC.

And Square, Inc. is making a brilliant "Trojan Horse" series of business moves to bootstrap adoption in both users and vendors. They get vendors using the Square app by providing plastic processing, they get users using the app by providing convenient tabs... as smartphones become ubiquitous, they don't have many limits to growth.

NFC on the other hand... Who is going to be the jockey that rides NFC in the race? Google? What will Google be able to offer to vendors that Square doesn't? I can't think of a single benefit of NFC over Pay With Square from the vendor's point of view. And Google will never pound the pavement the way Square is. They just have too many other fronts to fight on.

Re: Jack Dorsey: Today Starbucks Signed up for Square

#34

Post by gojomo »

cdcarter wrote: post #28
medinismo wrote: post #21

I really do not see the benefit of this deal. Square - sure, another bunch of retailers. Starbux, not so much. NFC will take over and then square is out. can someone explain?

NFC hasn't taken over yet. Pay with Square offers something pretty close feature-wise, and is establishing residence in the market. Once NFC works well, Square can adopt it and rule.

There is also the chance that Square (and similar geolocation- and photo- based heuristics) will make NFC superfluous. Why NFC when a human-to-human word or gesture is faster, more natural, and just as reliable?

Re: Jack Dorsey: Today Starbucks Signed up for Square

#36

Post by philip1209 »

jcdavis wrote: post #2

Wow, huge deal for Square. I'm very curious what the terms of the deal are: presumably Starbucks isn't willing to pay much more than what their current processing fees are (maybe a tiny bit more for the premium of being able to use Pay with Square?), so Square must be losing a decent chunk of change in exchange for the huge marketing and growth this gets them.

"Starbucks isn't willing to pay much more than what their current processing fees"

Let us not forget that there may be a dichotomy in processing fees of credit cards at Starbucks between register-based transactions and digital/mobile-based Starbucks card reloads. Square doesn't have to beat the former to be competitive - only the latter, because it seems that Square will be on track to replace the current smartphone scanners at Starbucks registers.

Let us also not ignore that this is Starbucks offloading liability - when dealing with payments on a massive scale, one has to deal with a variety of frauds that may occur. With the current Starbucks card reloads before the point of sale, they may be starting to encounter fraud based on the volume of sales they encounter. However, Square has essentially specialized in managing this type of fraud. Hence, the Square partnership could simply be an acknowledgement that the Starbucks card payment system has become mainstream enough that it justifies a dedicated security division, whether it be internal or external, and that Starbucks opted for external Square.

Re: Jack Dorsey: Today Starbucks Signed up for Square

#39

Post by notatoad »

salman89 wrote: post #6

I think more than any other benefit, Square has been validated by a premier American chain. It will be a much easier sell to other large chains. The big money for Square is in having these large customers with multiple POS deployments, where overhead will be small compared to revenues, at least relative to single shop customers. It will also put their product in front of end customers, many for the first time. I for…

Yeah, with this announcement square's sales pitch has effectively become "well, starbucks uses it..."

Re: Jack Dorsey: Today Starbucks Signed up for Square

#40

Post by jaredsohn »

mapster wrote: post #30
ben1040 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One cool feature about the Square mobile app is you can set up geofenced "tabs" that automatically get opened if you get close enough to an establishment. So you keep your phone in your pocket, walk into Starbucks and order a drink as you do every morning. You tell them "put it on John's tab." You get a receipt in your email immediately thereafter, and never have to pull out your phone or wallet.

I always look at my receipt upon purchase, even for a $7 latte and scone. This may require a leap of faith beyond most people's comfort zone, at least initially. But very promising.

I don't know how the app works (it might already do some of this), but it would be nice if it would vibrate when you get charged and perhaps allow configuring it for a list of default purchases such that it vibrates twice if it is for a different than usual amount so you don't have to look at it.
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