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Think Computer Corp., the startup behind the FaceCash mobile-payments system, has launched a browser-based point-of-sale register in an effort ease FaceCash integration for merchants. “The register lets any small business turn a Web browser into a cash register,” says Aaron Greenspan, Think’s chief executive and president.
The product, which has been under development for a year and is free to any merchant that accepts FaceCash, processes FaceCash, cash, and card transactions. It supports Authorize.Net, a unit of Visa Inc., for card processing to start with, but Greenspan says Think will add more gateways “if there’s enough demand for it and as long as there’s a good API.”
Greenspan says he is hoping FaceCash Register will help spur usage of FaceCash by increasing the points of sale taking the payment method, which launched nearly a year ago and relies on bar codes displayed on smart-phone screens to trigger payments from users. Close to 500 users have signed up for FacCash accounts, up from around 100 in June. “Merchants tell us they need point-of-sale integration,” says Greenspan. Two versions of the product have been introduced. One version, for merchants without legacy POS systems, can simply run on a laptop at the point of sale. The other version integrates with a merchant’s existing system.
Palo Alto, Calif.-based Think has signed about 20 merchants, many of them restaurants, in the Bay area to accept FaceCash, up from five shortly after its launch. Greenspan says his plan is to recruit merchants of varying sizes. “If you have just small businesses, it doesn’t look real to people,” he notes.
As the payments industry waits for the commercial rollout of near-field communication technology, startups are jumping into mobile payments to fill the void. The FaceCash system allows consumers to pay merchants by displaying photos of themselves along with unique, identifying bar codes. The service, which also enables person-to-person payments using “bump” technology, has no charge for consumer accounts and offers features such as detailed transaction records and the ability to split tabs among multiple people. It also offers merchants a 1.5% rate, which is attractive compared to typical card discount rates (transfers among individuals are free).
Once a consumer has signed up for an account, she can fund it by transferring money from her checking or savings account. Transfers are processed via the low-cost automated clearing house network. Card funding is not allowed because of interchange costs. Accounts are free unless the consumer insists on using a so-called free e-mail address, such as gmail or hotmail, which are harder to verify. In this case, the service levies a one-time $2.99 fee.
During the sign-up process, the consumer also submits a photo of herself. This photo appears on her phone screen and on the cashier’s PC screen when she’s at the store ready to pay for her goods. Also appearing on the screen is a bar code that further identifies the user and links her transaction details to her account. To further authenticate accounts, first-time users must also show merchants a driver’s license with a photo.
While it’s free to merchants, the new FaceCash Register may face stiff competition from similar products, says George Peabody, director of the emerging technologies advisory service at Maynard, Mass.-based Mercator Advisory Group. “We’re certainly seeing more cloud-based registers,” he notes. As a small startup, Think may have a tough slog just getting in the door with many merchants, he says, adding the acquiring business is “brutally hard.”
Greenspan, who says his company has three full-time employees along with a handful of contractors, says he plans to raise funds for Think later this year, in part to support distribution of FaceCash and the register. Thinking longer-term, he predicts the idea of a point-of-sale equipment business as a “separate” industry will “start to fade” over the next five to 10 years as devices like smart phones and tablet computers take on the tasks once performed by ECRs and POS terminals. “This is the very early stage of the demise of the cash register as its own standalone product,” he says.
