Square Has A New Competitor – Shopify’s New Card Reader

Reports out indicate that Shopify has released a card reader all its own to make it easy for small and medium sized merchants to accept credit or debit payments.  The dip or swipe readers work with the major American brands — Visa, Mastercard, Amex and Discover — connecting wirelessly to smartphones via bluetooth, and can do 700 swipes and 400 dips from a full charge.

If it sounds a bit familiar, that’s probably because Square makes a very similar device with a similar function.  And, of course, Square is not alone — Shopify’s new entrant also has competitors made by PayPal and Intuit, among others.

Shopify first introduced the world to its new model in April and started taking pre-orders last month. As of today (August 3), the reader is out on the market for all Shopify merchants.

To be useful, retailers will need an iPhone 5 or later model, a third generation iPad running iOS 9, or an Android device running version 4.4 at minimum.

The device thus far is only available in the U.S. and is being offered to new Shopify point-of-sale merchants for free. Existing merchants looking to sign on will pay $29.