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Block Inc.’s Square point-of-sale technology unit announced late Tuesday it completed development work on a new platform it says offers improvements in ordering and payments. According to the brief announcement, the new technology offerings will include capabilities such as pre-authorization of transactions and bar tabs “to sellers of all sizes across verticals in the [United States].
At least some merchants are already on the new system, which Square calls its Orders Platform, “We are thrilled that sellers in the U.S. are now on the new Orders Platform, which is currently in general availability. This is a key unlock for innovation and we expect this will accelerate product velocity going forward,” said Saumil Mehta, Head of Product for Square, in a statement.
“Square will be able to provide more checkout flexibility to sellers, whether their customers are seeking to order ahead, open a bar tab, or set up a subscription,” Mehta’s statement adds.
A spokesperson for Block did not immediately respond to queries from Digital Transactions News regarding the new Orders platform. Block’s Square for Restaurants POS technology is used by some 1,700 hospitality-related entities, of which about 1,200 are U.S. companies, according to data from the research platform 6sense.
The new platform comes at a time when competition in payments technology for the hospitality industry has grown fierce, with new ordering and payments technology coming from established providers ranging from NCR Corp. to Shift4 Payments Inc.
At the same time, companies working with Square are growing more active in response to the opportunity to update POS and other payments-related technology. An example emerged early Wednesday with the announcement from the restaurant-technology company Popmenu that it is building on an existing tie to Square to introduce artificial-intelligence capability for Square merchants.
The new technology offering, which Popmenu says focuses on issues linked to marketing and phone answering, will also assist in such matters as immediate menu updates, order accuracy, marketing tied to customer behavior, and order reporting linked to Square’s point-of-sale system, according to the company.
A spokesperson for Atlanta-based Popmenu did not immediately respond to queries from Digital Transactions News regarding how many Square clients the company serves and a “special rate” it announced for these clients.
