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Stripe Terminal – Programmable point of sale
- uptown 8y agoSeems like a no-brainer. I see Square terminals everywhere, so the market seems proven. Anyone know if their pricing is comparable?
- adyus 8y agoI'm not sure what Square charges, but a regular POS from your business bank would be far, far less in percentage for in-person, card-present transactions. I've seen 1.5% figures here in Europe. So far, Stripe seems to have lowered the fixed fee from 30¢ to 5¢ and dropped 0.2% off their payment gateway fees.
- earlz 8y agoI've heard Europe is more reasonable, but at least as of a few years back before Square got so popular, there was a ton of fees to having a bank-owned card reader. Typically required >$1000 deposit just to get the machine, and then a subscription in excess of $200/month, and if I remember correctly, card present transactions were around a 2.5% fee... oh, and that was typically just for Visa and Mastercard. The people I knew with these machines never sprung for the other networks because the price was so expensive. My parents run some small businesses, and credit card machine fees were one of the major line items in their monthly expenses before getting one of those cheap square phone devices back in 2012 or so. Maybe the banks have made things more competitive though now that Square has taken at least some of their business.
- TomMarius 8y agoMy previous startup has card payments from EU cards for 0.9% and 5 CZK
- dementik 8y agoIn EU I work for company taking 0.3% on debit cards and 0.9% for CC. Additional 0.02€ per transaction.
- m_coder 8y agoI use Square all day every day here at my pet store. The killer feature for Square is the consistent pricing. There are no add on fees and no clowning around. You get the same 2.75 percent on (almost) every transaction and it builds a lot of trust. There are a few cards where it goes up a little but not enough to bother me.
- TomMarius 8y agoStripe is well known for the same
- mootrichard 8y agoEdit: (I work at Square) 2.5% +$.10 https://squareup.com/us/en/developers/reader-sdk https://squareup.com/us/en/developers/reader-sdk
- dopamean 8y agoI'm not sure what they mean by creating a "unified experience" and I'm not sure I understand what exactly can be customized.
- cosn 8y ago(I work at Stripe) The end consumer will have a seamless experience between paying online and offline -- think buy things online, return in-store (or vice-versa). Your customers can initiate a subscription in-store that continues online with Stripe Billing. You will have all your reporting -- for both online and in-person transactions -- within the Stripe Dashboard. In terms of customization, we think our new SDKs will make it really easy for you to build the right checkout experience for your business. Also, you’ll be able to customize some aspects of the reader display (e.g., logos, color theme, splash screen, etc.).
- dopamean 8y agoThis makes sense. Thanks for clarifying.
- rubynerd 8y agoR.E. "unified experience", this slots so cleanly into Stripe's stable of products: all of your reporting would be available in Sigma, all of your fraud data available in Radar, and with a little magic in the SDK side, all of your customer data available (unified) in Stripe's database. Imagine if you're running a web store, and you want to go to a conference or convention or something and start selling your stuff there. All of your tools still work, all of your reporting still works, and crucially your accounting flow remains identical. The customisation options are probably up in the air right now - I imagine developers won't get the ability to customise the UI available on the PIN pad in the first release, but I imagine that's where they want to get to.
- cosn 8y ago(I work at Stripe) > I imagine developers won't get the ability to customise the UI available on the PIN pad in the first release Actually, you'll be able to configure the splash screen in the first release, and will open up more hooks over time
- docker_up 8y agoA shot across the bow against Square. This will be very interesting. Payments has always been a race to the bottom, I wonder how quickly rates will drop for POS payment providers now that Stripe is going after that business and directly against Square.
- tyingq 8y agoI'm surprised either Square or Stripe would do well in the "card present" space. 2.9% + 30 cents is pretty big markup if you're "card present". Edit: See comment below, apparently the 30 cents is now 5 cents for card present. Helpful, though doesn't necessarily close the whole gap, depending on transaction mix.
- Zombieball 8y agoCould you clarify? Is this markup only on card present transactions?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- tyingq 8y agoIt's specific to the US. Within the US, if have your own merchant account, "card present" is a lot cheaper than "card not present". So far, companies like Paypal, Square, and now Stripe, don't pass those savings on. They all have one rate that doesn't differentiate.
- docker_up 8y agoMore importantly, fraud rates are much lower with CP than CNP. If the Visa/MC in the US goes with a PIN-type system like the rest of the world, fraud rates drop to near zero, which makes Card Present insanely profitable for them.
- jdmichal 8y agoCard-present transactions are typically cheaper, because the risk of fraud is better mitigated. With chip cards, the fraud risk for card-present is almost entirely in physically stolen cards. (Sophisticated shops could duplicate magnetic stripes. That's a lot harder to do with chips.) Compared to online, where all you have is the card number and the CVV, both of which are easily duplicated. And this is why tokenization is such a big deal. Tokenization means you don't store the actual card number, and the token you do store is tied directly to your merchant, so it's not widely reusable.
- osrec 8y agoI really hope they have a web based API, not requiring a native app. If they do, we would love to use them for our PWA (https://usebx.com https://usebx.com) as a bunch of customers ask for this regularly.
- adyus 8y agoIt appears there's a Javascript SDK listed as available.
- osrec 8y agoI think that really separates them from the rest. With everyone else, you need a native app to integrate with their terminal. Stripe offering this is really very cool!
- rebelidealist 8y agoTheir js api only works for the bulkier Verizon Reader.
- blattus 8y ago(I work at Stripe) Yes -- we have both native APIs (iOS and soon Android), and a web based API (JavaScript). Our JavaScript SDK is designed for you to easily extend an existing web-based application to enable in-person payments.
- foobaw 8y agoCompetition is good I guess...
- omarforgotpwd 8y agoUsing Verifone hardware? I'd rather just use Square. Nothing wrong with using both Square and Stripe for credit card processing.
- cosn 8y ago(I work at Stripe) We currently support two devices and will add support for more in the months to come. Please request an invite and let us know if there are particular hardware devices you are interested in us supporting.
- ambicapter 8y agoHow does the hardware work with the web SDK? I didn't think it was possible to interface with hardware from a browser.
- sandoz9 8y agoVerifone supports HTML subset for user interface, I'd imagine that's the only thing you can customize.
- nickjj 8y agoPretty interesting. I wonder if this is going to eventually turn into something comparable to Shopify's hardware POS offerings[0]. [0]: https://www.shopify.com/pos/features#hardware https://www.shopify.com/pos/features#hardware
- csytan 8y agoIt's interesting to see: - Square become Stripe, while Stripe becomes Square - Stripe owning the whole user experience in purchasing - If they own the physical end points, will they eventually cut out credit card companies? You can already see that they are pushing for collecting emails with checkout.js. The first step is to have direct contact with the end user. - If they cut out credit card companies, what's to stop them from moving into personal payments (e.g. Square Cash, Venmo) and then banking?
- n3d1m 8y agoNothing stopping them. And I wish they would. The MC/Visa duopoly needs to be disrupted.
- Silhouette 8y agoThe MC/Visa duopoly needs to be disrupted. Yes, but not by anything even vaguely resembling credit cards as we know them today. The whole system is insecure, inefficient and unreliable by design, and the credit aspect introduces an extra level of legal and financial mess, particularly for those people who just want a convenient payment method but don't actually need to defer settlement. Card payments may be the perfect example of the dangers of monopolies and oligopolies.
- Sir_Cmpwn 8y agoWhat, and replaced with another monopoly?
- jimnotgym 8y agoOr a duopoly of Stripe and Applepay?
- jjeaff 8y ago>nothing is stopping them. I'm guessing their Network agreements with Visa and MasterCard would stop them. You could issue a stripe card that only works with stripe merchants. But I can't imagine visa allowing their imprint on a card that can both process anywhere AND be used to slowly cut visa out of the picture.
- andromedavision 8y agoAbsolutely great. This industry(card processing - esp. in person) is mired by a ton of ambiguity and it would take a company like Stripe to open it up to innovation. Cannot wait to see what comes out of this from the ecosystem.
- password03 8y agoI couldn't agree more. Up to now it has been near impossible for third party solutions to end up on terminals. I've seen these new Verifone terminals and they are awesome. I can't wait to see what comes of these.
- pg_bot 8y agoLooks awesome, already requested an invite and can't wait to put it in practice. The next thing that I really want from Stripe is an API for the analytics they generate. I would love to be able to display the data that they are already showing in their web application via something like their elements library. I want my customers to have a better sense of how their business is doing, without having to duplicate the work that Stripe is already doing.
- dbbk 8y agoI think this must exist? I know you can push the Stripe analytics data to Databox.
- philip1209 8y agoStarting a subscription in-person seems like a game-changer. Also, attribution of in-store purchases to marketing efforts is so hard. I bet Stripe could help with this, e.g. starting with email address, or tying an online account to an in-person transaction.
- sbashyal 8y agoWe have developed a POS for salons and spa and have been working with various in-store payment solutions - including Square. None of the existing solutions meet our needs. I have applied for an invite - can't wait to get access.
- cosn 8y ago(I work at Stripe) Excited to review your application! We have a lot of users building point of sale applications for booking and scheduling -- including AtVenu, Mindbody, Universe, Zenoti.
- dnlsandiego 8y agoHow likely are startups who are still building out a platform get approved for beta access? And should startups add that info in the beta request form?
- cosn 8y ago(I work at Stripe) Yep, please tell us as much possible in the form. The Beta is open to all business in the US.
- jf 8y ago"People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware." - Alan Kay
- coreyrab 8y agoWondering if this could enable use-cases for in-person subscription selling. I.e. selling SaaS/subscription content at conferences and tradeshows.
- nateb415 8y ago(I work at Stripe) Yes this is one of the use cases we are excited for users to bring to market utilizing Stripe Terminal. If you also use Stripe Billing, you can help your customers initiate a subscription in-person.
- taherchhabra 8y agoIs it possible to build this use case: identifing the user using face recognition during checkout and processing payments based on his card stored in the system. Also is it possible to export the purchase data to other systems via API. So as to enable e-commerce style data analytics/customer engagement for brick and mortar retailers
- jsgo 8y agoOutside of being a 2FA/fraud prevention measure, what's the benefit of facial recognition here (I also imagine a lot of your customer base would be opposed to the idea of someone storing facial data for this, but I digress)? The card data should be sufficient for the purpose of linking purchases to an individual account if one is inclined to do so.
- yorwba 8y agoIt might be slightly more convenient to be able to just walk in and out of a shop without having to insert your card anywhere, especially when you forgot to bring it with you. On the other hand, the value of that would mostly be in the novelty, and given the current level of facial recognition technology, the hassle of disputing incorrect matches would likely make it more trouble than it's worth.
- taherchhabra 8y ago
- jarboot 8y agoI wonder if Stripe or Venmo will be the first to get QR payments going in the US.
- tomjakubowski 8y agoCurrentC was created a merchant consortium to push barcode payments (as seen at CVS, I think?) and didn't get anywhere. It's not clear to me why you'd want to use a barcode rather than NFC a la Apple Pay. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Customer_Exchange https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Customer_Exchange
- neivin 8y agoThe likelihood of QR payments taking off in North America is slim. People love credit cards. They offer way too much. This model worked in China because people went from using cash to mobile. We've been using credit cards forever and there's literally no incentive for me to use an app like Venmo/Square Cash over my Chase credit card which gives me points/miles
- password03 8y agoIt is simple as this and I have seen the research. The west loves tapping and the east loves scanning (AliPay / WePay)
- joshuakelly 8y agoWe've been participating in this trial. Happy to answer questions about it.
- jimmy1 8y agoCan you give out any more details? Can this replace a restaurant POS system like Micros, Aloha, Digital Dining, et all? My brother is a restaurant owner and is struggling with one of those scummy legacy POS systems and I am trying to help him out of it -- even to the point of rolling an open source POS system out for him
- matdehaast 8y agoI am naive in this space, could some explain what is keeping the duopoly of Visa/MasterCard going?
- chipotle_coyote 8y agoWhile I haven't done a lot of research in this area, I would suspect launching a new credit card company is just a massive amount of work, very different from launching a new web app. You're obviously going to be subject to a lot of banking and capital regulations; you're either going to have to be starting an actual bank or you're going to have to partner with (at least) one, for instance. Then you have to figure out how to get businesses to start accepting you. "This card works everywhere that happens to have a Square-based point of sale system" is not going to get you to be the next Visa. It's not even going to get you to be the next Discover. While Simple was trying to launch a new bank, not a CC processor, their experience is probably informative here -- they're successful by some measures, but they failed at disrupting the industry the way they wanted to. (I'm a Simple customer and have been on the edge of switching back to a conventional bank for over a year; it's mostly just inertia that keeps me there.)
- jerrysievert 8y ago> While I haven't done a lot of research in this area, I would suspect launching a new credit card company is just a massive amount of work there's a Futurama episode that has a snarky commentary on this - s01e06: fry: "Do you take Visa?" clerk: "Visa hasn't existed for five hundred years." fry: "American Express?" clerk: "Six hundred years." fry: "Discover Card?" clerk: "Hmm...sorry, we don't take Discover."
- iwaffles 8y agoWe spent a lot of time building a terminal at Sidestep on top of Stripe (and a few other processors). Everything on the in-person payment level was done through an iOS or Android device. The hardest part wasn't managing devices (they could log in on almost any device), but the hardware integration for accepting credit cards. It exists in various places, but none of it could do exactly what we wanted to do. CardFlight was the closest to being a stripe friendly api for swiping cards. Usually the devices for swiping cards were too expensive and the failure rate was high. I don't think swiping hardware has gone down, unless you're using Square. But hardware costs aside, the ability to fully integrate with the API on a terminal level is the most powerful thing here. It allows for so many cool POS integrations like the one we building at Sidestep. To me, the coolest thing about this is that it supports Stripe Connect so you can create a POS that's used by others without having to deal with any money transfer yourself. Customer swipes card -> your software -> client's bank account.
- foobaw 8y agohow much fee is collected like this? Stripe Connect takes a fee, Stripe Terminal takes a fee, etc.
- iwaffles 8y agoI don't think the fees stack like that. The terminal page says 2.7% + $0.05 per transaction. I believe that Stripe Connect doesn't take an extra fee, at least not in my experience.
- thedangler 8y agoOf course Canada left out again. lol
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- NeighboringOwl 8y agoHiya, I work at Stripe. We want to make sure that Stripe Terminal supports the major in-person payment methods in market. As you know, Interac is really important in Canada, and we're working on adding support for that. Stay tuned!
- mrwnmonm 8y agoDoes stripe has the world best designers? Just wow.
- orliesaurus 8y agoI am working with a company that has small physical stores processing hundreds of payments every day... and having to rely on all the existing crappy hardware for taking payments is a pain in the a$$.. this looks like it could change the game - I'm applying for invite and see what happens next
- taurath 8y agoWhich is strange, because it seems to me a consumer that there's been an explosion in POS systems that offer any featureset under the sun. Are the backend systems just all wonky?
- orliesaurus 8y agoSome folks have really old hardware/software systems because the people that set them up initially (think 5-10 years ago) didnt probably feel confident with the newer vendors or maybe were incentivized to use the more older crappy systems that are more reliable but less customizable/hookable
- objclxt 8y ago> having to rely on all the existing crappy hardware for taking payments is a pain in the a$$ This is the same crappy hardware. Look at the page - it's Verifone terminals. It's an app based POS that communicates to standard POS card readers, so the same hardware. This is unlike Square, who built their own hardware.
- dandigangi 8y agoSide note on the design - Absolutely love how well they do with keeping depth on flat design elements. Stripe design team always does such good work.
- DenisM 8y agoSo, no need to worry about PCI compliance, right?
- aembleton 8y agoWell you're not holding credit card details, so no there should be no need to worry about PCI.
- DenisM 8y agoI was hoping to hear that from Stripe. The word PCI is nowhere on the headline page.
- cosn 8y ago(I work at Stripe) Apologies for the delay! Stripe Terminal works with our pre-certified card readers. This ensures that your transactions are secured by our end-to-end encryption and that your readers are always up-to-date via our remote management tools. We’ll share even more information about how we help reduce your PCI scope with Stripe Terminal when we launch full docs later this week!
- jwiley 8y agoCan someone clarify what the use-case is for this new functionality? I've regularly used POS stripe devices based on iPads, is the idea this allows Stripe to be used on proprietary POS devices?
- cosn 8y ago(I work at Stripe) Stripe Terminal gives developers the flexibility to build custom point of sale applications that use the Stripe payments platform, with EMV-ready hardware. The product will be work across the entire suite of Stripe products (Billing, Radar, Sigma etc.), and we’ll provide native SDKs across several languages.
- herova 8y agoLiving in Russia i every time wondering why Stripe or square companies exist. We have batch of banks which doing this card acquiring, mobile phone operators who made pos terminals with internet connection and online tax services. And now i see stripe pos like back in years ago. Wtf.
- treelovinhippie 8y agoSome ideas: 1) Flash up a QR code (and/or NFC) on the device to allow for crypto payments/buy/sell. 2) Flash up a QR code (and/or NFC) to sell custom store tokens or loyalty points.
- densone 8y agoanyone know if it will support pre-auth .. I own a nightclub and this would be clutch. I saw they have a preauth endpoint. But, can I preauth for $1 and capture $100
- IloveHN84 8y agoCan it be also hacked?