RedBeacon has just released an update to its services that effectively closes the loop on the company’s home services marketplace.
The company announced the update on its blog, bringing mobile and online payments to the platform. This will let users link their credit card to their RedBeacon account and pay for home services directly from RedBeacon, as opposed to a cash exchange once the pro is finished.
This is a natural and necessary step for RedBeacon, which relies on peer-to-peer interaction and transactions as a business model. Up until now, users had to pay contractors on the spot. It would be like using Airbnb, but paying your host in cash when you arrived. Redbeacon, however, has finally caught up and is ready to let you click to pay.
It works like this: Once you find a pro to do your work, you hire them and set up a dialogue around the work you want done. Sometimes that pro may need an advance on materials, which can be facilitated through the app before the job is done. If not, the pro will come to your location, complete the work, and then can send you an invoice directly from their phone.
Once you receive the invoice, you can pay with one click, and BrainTree collects that payment from consumers, while PayPal delivers it directly to the pro. This not only allows you to dump the cash and stay paperless in your payments, but it ensures that you have a digital record of the work done, from the proposal phase all the way to payment.
While pros have the added benefit of getting paid on the spot, they also enjoy a few other benefits from being on the Redbeacon platform. For one, Redbeacon’s acquisition by Home Depot has allowed the home services marketplace to be integrated with 250 Home Depot stores across five markets. This lets Home Depot refer confused customers to Redbeacon pros. Plus, it lets pros sign up for Redbeacon rewards, meaning they get points for all purchases made at Home Depot, which can later be used to buy more supplies.
It’s a win-win.
Co-founder Yaron Binur said that payments are just the beginning. “Now that we have payments, we can do a bunch of things that we’re really excited about like subscriptions and instant quotes,” Binur said. “We needed payments as an infrastructure before we could build any of that out, but it’s coming.”
He also mentioned that, eventually, pros will be able to use the Redbeacon payments system for their other, non-Redbeacon jobs.
Redbeacon allows consumers who need a service performed to find and interact with local businesses and professionals. Redbeacon goes beyond returning business listings with ratings and reviews by helping consumers determine the right service provider for their specific needs and allowing them to compare price quotes and book appointments online. Consumers describe what they need done and specify when and where their job should take place. Using patent-pending machine learning and semantic technology, Redbeacon determines the best...
Yaron Binur is a co-founder at Redbeacon, where he works on product management and product strategy. Previously, he was a Product Manager at Google, where he led the product development of Google News. Yaron was also a Product Manager on international Google Search quality and user experience. Yaron is a co-founder and executive board member of Middle East Education through Technology, a non-profit that brings together Palestinian and Israeli youth around business and technology. Yaron graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...
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