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Merchant processor Square Inc. will provide payment services to Eventbrite Inc., which provides a platform for ticket sales, and will invest $25 million in the company, Square announced Thursday. Earlier, Square said it will make Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay service available to merchants using its Square Checkout online service.
Square said it will support Eventbrite’s online and mobile-payment needs. It also will support the company’s in-person payment transactions. From a reporting standpoint, event organizers will be able to view all of their payments in a single view.
San Francisco-based Square did not say when it would begin processing Eventbrite’s transactions. Adyen, a Netherlands-based processor with a San Francisco office, has been Eventbrite’s processor since 2015.
Event organizers using Eventbrite currently have three payments options, according to Eventbrite’s Web site. Eventbrite offers its own payment-processing service plan in addition to PayPal and Authorize.Net options. In addition to a service fee when using Eventbrite Payment Processing, the San Francisco-based company charges a 3% transaction fee. Organizers opting for PayPal or Authorize.Net still pay the Eventbrite service fee, plus transaction fees set by these providers.
Square says the Eventbrite deal is an important step in helping merchants make transactions across multiple channels. “We first launched our Build with Square APIs so any seller or [software] developer could integrate their apps or websites with Square’s managed payments and ecosystem,” writes Carl Yates Perry, Square developer lead, in a blog post. “Since then, we’ve seen developers build connected apps for everything from boba tea shops and clothing stores, to taxis in Washington, D.C.”
Square says this functionality, exemplified by the Eventbrite deal, is being built for any marketplace, seller, or developer to use and on which to build their own solutions. “We’ll include other marketplaces in our development efforts to drive early feedback and usage of our APIs and services,” a Square spokesperson says in an email to Digital Transactions News. “And we’re of course working closely with Eventbrite to determine what we’ll prioritize. We don’t have a specific timeline to share right now, but as we release this functionality in an iterative manner, every developer can start building on it.”
In related news, Square announced Wednesday it is making Apple Pay on the Web available to all Square Checkout users. Consumers will be able to use Apple Pay through Square Checkout on Web sites.
“For Apple, Square represents a meaningful new merchant development partner for gaining additional retailer, e-commerce and cross-channel (e-commerce, order ahead and physical point of sale) adoption of Apple Pay,” notes Richard K. Crone, principal of Crone Consulting LLC in San Carlos, Calif., in an email to Digital Transactions News. “Square and Apple Pay are more than just an e-commerce play. Ultimately it will set the standard for subsumed, invisible pre-enrolled payments for every channel and sale situation.”
