Detroit-based PayAnywhere is emerging as a competitor to Square’s mPOS product. In the past year, PayAnywhere has developed partnerships to sell its product at Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Amazon, OfficeMax, Sam’s Club, Sears, Kmart, and more. PayAnywhere is a product of North American Bancard, a processor that handles more than $15 billion in electronic transactions for more than 155,000 merchants in the U.S.
From a USA Today article:
“We intend to take on Square head-to-head,” says Marc Gardner, CEO and founder of PayAnywhere. “We see a ginormous opportunity in mobile with the advent of smartphones and tablets,” Gardner says. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The days of the traditional credit card terminal are waning.”
As with all mPOS solutions, PayAnywhere is facing a difficult road. In addition to Square’s offering, the mPOS market is comprised of solutions developed by PayPal, Intuit, VeriFone, NCR, and more. And, while most of these companies provide the hardware dongle for free, PayAnywhere is charging $9.95. This may not seem like much, but if merchants are offered apparently identical solutions, one for almost $10 and one for free, they will choose the free one almost every time. This is no longer an easy market to enter, and most entrants can be expected to exit within the next 12 months.
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