Groupon launches iPad-based restaurant point-of-sale system

Posted:
in iPad edited January 2014
Deal-a-day company Groupon hopes to expand the use of Apple's iPad at restaurants through its new point-of-sale service called Breadcrumb.

The new service from Groupon Inc. launched on Wednesday in an effort to court more restaurants as clients, according to Reuters. The service is a "sales, order management and reporting system for restaurants, bars and cafes" that relies on Apple's iPad.

In fact, the market leading iPad is the only option in Breadcrumb's service. Clients can pay $99 a month for the service to run on one iPad, or $199 for two iPad terminals. From there, additional iPads are discounted at $299 per month for five and $399 per month for up to 10.

Through Breadcrumb, Groupon sells Apple's iPad to restaurants at cost. But clients can also buy or use their own iPads if they choose.

Breadcrumb already offered iPad-driven point-of-sale services when it operated at a separate company. But it was bought by Groupon this May, and the deal-driven service hopes to expand the presence of iPads with Breadcrumb into even more restaurants.

The service was tested at about 100 location in New York, but Wednesday marks a full-scale launch of the product across the U.S.

Breadcrumb


Groupon's push is just the latest example of how Apple's iPad has become a versatile point-of-sale device in many businesses. Breadcrumb will compete directly with Square Register, an application paired with a credit card reading accessory that allows vendors to make transactions with customers easier.

Even the world's largest fast food chain, McDonald's, has gotten in on the action. This week a McDonald's location in Virginia Beach, Va., was highlighted because it offers its customers mounted iPads that they can use for free while they are visiting.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    poochpooch Posts: 768member
    Deal-a-day company Groupon hopes to expand the use of Apple's iPad at restaurants through its new point-of-sale service called Breadcrumb.

    really? does groupon's business model really include expanding the number of ipads in use? or might that be a side-effect of their having simply written an app and providing a service they hope to sell as a means of growing *their* business?
  • Reply 2 of 4


    Groupon really didn't launch this today. Breadcrumb has been available for almost a year now and was purchased by Groupon earlier in the spring. This is just Groupon letting everyone know that they are involved and it's their product now.


     


    With that said, Breadcrumb appears to be a really solid product. Compared to POSLavu, which has lots of problems, Breadcrumb looks like a solid offering.


     


    Lets hope that Groupon doesn't hinder the actual software company making it and try to bloat it up with Groupon junk.

  • Reply 3 of 4


    Anybody know how this compares to Square's Register which makes money on each CC transaction ? Can you choose your own CC processing with Breadcrumbs ? 

  • Reply 4 of 4

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by kennyd View Post


    Anybody know how this compares to Square's Register which makes money on each CC transaction ? Can you choose your own CC processing with Breadcrumbs ? 



    It's quite a bit different than Square. Groupon does allow for 3rd party merchants, quite a few to be exact. Groupon has created their own payment system and I'll sure they'll try to push that in the future but I highly doubt they will require it.


     


    I've been working closely with Breadcrumb over the past 4 months to offer this to my customers. While they don't have an official reseller program, I fill that role in some way. Shoot me a private message if you need more questions answered.

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