In mobile commerce news today…
Intuit has just announced on its Twitter account that it has acquired the startup company called AisleBuyer, which provides a service that allows consumers to order the products that they want directly from the merchant, instead of having to wait in lines at the store.
AisleBuyer has since confirmed the acquisition on its blog, though neither company has disclosed the terms of the deal. It has been estimated that the purchase was for around $100 million.
According to a the blog post, made by Andrew Paradise, the founder of Aislbuyer, “AisleBuyer has joined the Intuit team to develop superior solutions to meet the mobile point of sale needs for small business.” He added that “By leveraging our technology and talent, together with Intuit’s rock star payments team, we will continue to work on creating the best small business POS solutions in the world.”
Aislebuyer’s offerings include mShop, mClerk, and mDine, which each allow customers to create their own orders by using the merchant’s point-of-sale software. This will allow consumers to reduce waiting time significantly. Diners, for example, can order the food that they’d like to have before they even enter the restaurant.
On Intuit’s side of things, the company has held its focus on the small business marketplace, but has also overhauled its GoPayment card reader to add the new version to its offerings. This allows for mobile point-of-sale payments, as well.
The Intuit GoPayment card reader works in a way that is similar to some of its competition, such as PayPal and Square…
It allows mobile customers to swipe a credit card in order to add funds to another account, such as an Intuit GoPayment prepaid Visa card.
There is a 2.7 percent charge by Intuit for every swipe that is made, and a 3.7 percent charge for every transaction that is keyed in. The card reader itself is free, and there is no minimum monthly amount.
Customers can opt to lower the swipe and keyed rates of the use of the service down to 1.7 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively, by choosing to pay a monthly fee of $12.95.
