Square promoting Apple Pay for small businesses with free processing fees and discounted readers

Zac Hall | Jan 30 2017 - 9:19 am PT

Square already makes it possible for small businesses to easily accept Apple Pay at checkout with their latest payment terminal, and now Square is working with Apple on a new promotion to discount Square Readers and make processing fees free for businesses that use Apple Pay.

When a business accepts Apple Pay, customers can securely pay in stores by waving an iPhone or Apple Watch instead of swiping a credit card which is insecure, or inserting a chip card which is slow. Square Contactless is the latest Square Reader from the company and supports contactless payments including Apple Pay.

As part of this new promotion, Square is discounting the price of the contactless reader from $49 to $29 and processing over $12,000 worth of payments for free. Square and Apple Pay marketing material is included for free, and the optional Dock can be added for $29.

When a business has the Apple Pay Square Reader facing customers and Apple Pay promotional sign on display next to the payment terminal, Square gives businesses up to $350 in credit toward processing fees.

Square just requires the business to send in a snapshot of the payment terminal and marketing sign on display properly to qualify for the Apple Pay promotion.

As an Apple Pay user, I’m pleased to see Square and Apple pushing the payment service for small businesses. A few local businesses where I live rely on Square and have the latest terminals, but you usually have to ask for the wireless terminal to use Apple Pay. This promotion should encourage business owners to both adopt and properly position Apple Pay terminals from Square.

Square says it used a similar strategy last year in Portland which saw contactless payment adoption triple during the campaign.

Increased awareness for Apple Pay is also driving traction at major festivals and events. Across Kanye West’s Life of Pablo pop-up shops in August there was significant usage of contactless transaction in cities across the U.S., from San Francisco (28%), to Dallas and Houston (both 14%).

More details about the Square Apple Pay promotion can be found here.