Stripe Takes On Square, Clover With New Terminal

Stripe, the payments company, announced on Monday (Sept. 17) the launch of Stripe Terminal, a product that will enable online businesses and platforms to accept in-person payments with Stripe.

In a press release, Stripe said Stripe Terminal extends its infrastructure to the physical world, enabling developers to build custom payment experiences for in-person transactions in the same way they have been doing it for online merchants. According to Stripe, while the company has been expanding its products to support different online business models – including on-demand companies, internet retailers, commerce platforms, recurring revenue businesses and companies that need to issue their own credit cards – there haven’t been any good ways to unify the acceptance of in-store and online payments. Companies have been forced to get by with a mix of in-house and third-party providers, cobbling together point-of-sale hardware and software, dealing with security and EMV certification processes and navigating regulations and hardware requirements that varied by country.

“The question is: can we make the offline world as simple as the online world?” said John Collison, co-founder and president of Stripe. “As a software developer, you should be able to set up payments once, and have it work everywhere you need it to — on your website, in your app, in person, globally. With Stripe Terminal, we’re introducing just that: a way for internet-first retailers and SaaS companies to leapfrog legacy retailers in building highly customized payments experiences for in-store purchases that match what they’ve built online.”

Retailers that are using Stripe for in-store and online payments include Warby Parker and Glossier. The company noted that Stripe Terminal is the first integrated payments solution for industry-specific booking and commerce platforms serving their own merchants. Software platforms that have signed on to use Stripe Terminal include MINDBODY (for yoga studios and fitness centers), Zenoti (for salons and spas), atVenu (for concerts and performances) and Universe (for live events and tours).

Pricing for Stripe Terminal includes a processing fee (2.7 percent + 5 cents) for each transaction. Card readers from Stripe’s hardware partners can be purchased for prices ranging from $59 for mobile readers and $299 for countertop smart terminals, the company announced in the press release.