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Square launches loyalty rewards program

The credit-card reader company adds new features to its apps.

Donna Tam Staff Writer / News
Donna Tam covers Amazon and other fun stuff for CNET News. She is a San Francisco native who enjoys feasting, merrymaking, checking her Gmail and reading her Kindle.
Donna Tam
Square

After replacing credit-card machines, cash registers, and cash, Square is moving on to customer reward punch cards.

The company launched its loyalty rewards program feature today with updates to its Square Register and Pay with Square apps.

Square COO Keith Rabois said the new feature will helps merchants and customers forge a relationship without the need of a physical hole-punched card. Coupled with the seamless Pay With Square transaction, customers will only have to give their name to buy something, receive a receipt, and accumulate points automatically. The app will let customers know when they are due for that free sandwich or free coffee.

Your phone doesn't even have to leave your pocket, Rabois said, and all of these features working together means less transacting and more engagement between people.

"It helps encourage that bond," he said.

According to the company, since Square Register's launch in March, users of the app are five times more active on a weekly basis than Square Card Reader users and they process approximately two times more revenue, according to the company. He didn't provide specific numbers on how many users are actively using the apps so far.

Other new features for merchants include in-app reporting that provides quick access to sales trends in real time and an inventory where you can create categories of items for easy access and sorting.

 
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