Etsy just released a card reader. It works just like all of the other card readers out there, except it’s orange and only works with Etsy purchases. It is also sort of a brilliant thing for Etsy to do.
People spend a lot of money buying Etsy products. According to Etsy, 35 per cent of its sellers sell their products at craft fairs. That probably means that 35 per cent of its sellers use services like Square or PayPal to accept credit cards at said craft fairs. That also means that a percentage of those sales goes directly to Square or PayPal. (Square takes 2.75 per cent and PayPal takes 2.7 per cent.) Now, Etsy will take that cut instead.
The most attractive thing about Etsy’s new card reader — aside from the fact that it integrates seamlessly with an updated app and helps sellers track inventory — is that sellers actually save money by using it. “The reader is free, and payments through the card reader are competitively priced at 2.75% per swipe,” Etsy’s announcement blog post reads. “The 3.5% Etsy transaction fee does not apply for in-person sales.”
So that’s pretty cool. It almost makes you want to learn to learn to crochet so that you can embroider Kanye tweets onto fabric, frame the fabric, and then sell it at a craft fair for, like, $US40. Almost. [Etsy]