Merchants Can Now Offer Alcohol Delivery Through Square Online

Square sellers will now be able to offer customers alcohol delivery on Square Online’s on-demand delivery option, the digital payments processor announced Wednesday (May 5).

The orders are fulfilled through Square’s delivery partners, such as DoorDash, whose drivers will also verify the customers’ ages upon delivery. The delivery solution costs sellers $1.50 per order, paid to Square, and the fees from the delivery partner. Sellers can also pass part of the fees on to their customers.

“For many restaurant and retail sellers, this offering can provide a lucrative, nearly passive, new revenue stream without the costly overhead associated with building out a delivery fleet or hiring and training additional staff,” the release noted.

Online alcohol sales — and on-demand delivery of — has grown more mainstream in recent years, especially amid the pandemic, when people shifted to buying just about everything online. Uber pushed the trend further itself, with the acquisition of Drizly in February.

“Whether that’s a restaurant monetizing its wine cellar, a grocery store supplementing their on-premise sales, or a local brewery introducing old favorites to a new crowd, we’re proud to provide our sellers with a new way to make more money,” David Rusenko, head of eCommerce at Square, said in the press release.

The “bring it to me” economy that has been fostered this past year is expected to continue, perhaps to a lesser degree, even when consumers are fully vaccinated and return in stronger force to in-store shopping and indoor dining.

Square could be on its way to becoming a super app, PYMNTS previously reported. The payments tech firm offers a wide array of online tools and solutions for merchants, invests in bitcoin, purchased a music and entertainment platform in March and received a banking license.