Commerce

Square taps Postmates to let merchants offer on-demand deliveries


Square is partnering with courier network Postmates to bring on-demand deliveries to more restaurants and retailers.

The integration, which is rolling out today, will enable retailers of any size — that are using Square’s payments platform — to offer customers the option of having any item delivered.

It’s worth noting that Square already offers food deliveries through Caviar, a company it acquired back in 2014, and it has also snapped up other food delivery platforms, such as Fastbite and Entrees on-Trays. But a Postmates partnership opens up Square’s delivery smarts significantly.

San Francisco-based Postmates, which recently expanded to more than 1,000 cities as it gears up for its impending IPO, now covers 70% of U.S. households. With around 300,000 couriers, the Postmates platform connects the dots between retailers and consumers and helps brick-and-mortar merchants embrace online commerce. Though Postmates does focus a lot on food delivery, it is open to delivering just about any product, which is why it may be a good fit for Square.

Omnichannel

Above: Square + Postmates: Pickup, or out-for-delivery?

Jack Dorsey’s Square is better known for its mobile payments service that enables merchants to accept card payments in-store through a mobile device, but it has branched out into all manner of commerce-related verticals as it targets a bigger piece of the small business pie. Back in March, Square revealed that it would leverage its Weebly acquisition to bridge the online/offline divide. Part of this involved upgrading its Online Store offering, which — since 2013 — has served as an easy way for merchants to get online and selling more goods. The revamped Square Online Store ushered in a bunch of new features, including providing online stores with access to real-time inventory and an in-store pickup service.

So Square has already gone all-in on omnichannel commerce, and through partnering with Postmates it now has another way to lure — and keep — retailers inside its payment ecosystem.

“By partnering with Square to offer on-demand delivery, millions of small, local businesses are now able to do something that was not previously available,” noted James Butts, SVP for product at Postmates. “With access to an active fleet of over 300,000 Postmates, local sellers can deliver entirely new experiences to their customers — without the need to hire a developer — while focusing on what they do best: growing their business.”

Square merchants looking to leverage Postmates can do so via the Square app marketplace, by following the instructions to integrate Postmates into their dashboard. They can then offer their customers the opportunity to order goods for immediate delivery or to schedule deliveries for the future.



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