Square readies for the holidays, rolls out gift card integration
Just in time for the holiday shopping season, mobile payments platform provider Square is making gift card issuance easier for its small business customer base.
The San Francisco-based company announced the integration Tuesday, touting the gift card integration as seamless for both sellers and their respective customers. The company also boasts the affordability of the program, claiming that the costs incurred by sellers are much lower than the competition.
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Square sellers must use the dashboard tied to Square Register to order the gift cards, which are priced at $1.50 a pop. After that initial charge, however, Square says there are no additional activation fees, nor any costs for subscriptions, redemptions or transactions.
Using Square Register, sellers can offer, redeem and track gift cards. When a customer purchases a gift card, the funds from the activation are automatically deposited into the seller’s account the next business day, Square said. The gift cards are used just like any credit or debit card, and can be reloaded with additional value.
The gift card program follows yesterday’s news that Square would lend its Square Cash platform to the ephemeral messaging service Snapchat.
With Snap Cash, Snapchat users are able to send money to friends by typing dollar amounts into a text field. Square will process the transactions, and will also be responsible for housing the credit or debit card information that users tie to their accounts. The deal is expected to give Square a bit of additional revenue in the form of transaction fees, as well as access to a trove of payment data from new users.
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