Shopify, the Ottawa-based online payments behemoth that just raised $100 million in funding, has launched Shopify Mobile in the U.S. this week, completing the circle of its recent expansion into retail stores with its point-of-sale offering.
While the announcement benefits only iOS-based Shopify users in the United States for now, the announcement speaks to the firm’s commitment to mobile as the next bastion of payments. The new iOS app allows store owners, both physical and virtual, to sell their goods with a free credit card reader — kicking Square right in the gut — and manage stock right from the iPhone. Real-time inventory updates, including order processing and receipt issuing, can be performed on the phone itself, lessening a user’s reliance on Shopify’s web-based backend.
Shopify’s brilliance, which has evolved over its almost-eight years of existence, is the way it adapts dynamically to different screen sizes and platforms. A shop owner can populate his or her store with inventory and interact with it on the desktop, tablet or smartphone. By adding sales support to its iOS app, those same users can now circle back to the physical store, if applicable, and update stock or facilitate shipments in real-time.
Shopify also claims it is working on a similar update to its Android app, though, like a specific date for Canadian availability, it wouldn’t say when it’s coming.
[source]Shopify[/source]
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