Shuttle, Adyen’s mPOS Play, Beefs Up Its European Footprint With 3 More Markets, Taking Its Tally To 17

Adyen, a Holland-based ecommerce specialist, which launched an mPOS device called Shuttle last December — to compete with other European mobile point-of-sales device makers such as iZettle, Payleven and SumUp — has expanded its footprint in Europe, adding three more markets to bring its total to 17. Adyen claims this expansion makes it the “most widely available mPOS solution in Europe”.

The three new markets Adyen has recently added are Switzerland, Norway and Denmark. The other 15 markets where Shuttle is available are: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the U.K.

For some context, iZettle operates in seven European markets: the U.K., Spain, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland (plus Mexico); Payleven is currently available in six European markets: the U.K., Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, Poland and Austria (plus Brazil); while SumUp is in 11 countries: the U.K., Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia and Austria.

With so many players in Europe’s mPOS space scaling fast to grab more customers is one strategy to survive the inevitable consolidation, when it comes. But since Adyen isn’t currently breaking out customer numbers it’s difficult to assess whether its rapid rollout is bearing fruit. The company says only that it has “witnessed huge demand” from a range of businesses, including high street retailers, taxi services and caterers since its launch around nine months ago.

“The reception since its launch last year has been phenomenal,” added Roelant Prins, CCO, Adyen, in a statement. “We look forward to being able to offer the most advanced multichannel payment solution to an even broader range of customers.”

Adyen’s Shuttle sets itself apart from mPOS rivals by using a combination of a mobile card reader keypad device, where the credit or debit card owner keys in their PIN, linked up to a mobile app that the merchant uses on another device, such as an iPad or Android tablet. This set-up allows Adyen’s Shuttle to be compliant with chip-and-PIN security regulations on all card transactions. Some European mPOS startups have had to come up with workarounds for accepting Visa payments on chip-and-sign devices. iZettle’s chip-and-sign device, for instance, requires a Visa workaround, however the startup also has a dedicated chip-and-PIN device that is fully Visa compliant and competes directly with Adyen’s Shuttle.

From a retailer’s point of view, Adyen says the dual device set-up allows for check-outs to be mobile — with a check-out assistant able to take card payments from anywhere in the store, so long as they have the two devices with them. Shuttle apparently works with existing iPad-based point-of-sale systems.

Shuttle also differs in fee structure to its rivals, requiring a one-off payment of €99, and then a €10 monthly fee to use it — vs European rivals generally dispensing with monthly fees. Shuttle does offer lower transaction fees than its rivals: 1.4% for a credit card payment and 13 cents for a debit card payment, whereas most mPOS startups charge a flat 2.75% fee, although iZettle has recently introduced a reducing fee in the U.K. market, based on transaction volume, that can dip as low as 1.5%.

Shuttle’s fee structure appears tailored to companies that think they may process a high volume of transactions, rather than going after small businesses who might otherwise take cash in hand —  the target merchants of many mPOS startups. That said, iZettle’s tweaked payment structure is aimed at making its payment offering more attractive to businesses processing a higher volume of transactions, with the fee starting to reduce once a business takes in more than £2,000 in sales per month.

Adyen uses its own multi-channel payment platform to power Shuttle. Prior to launching is mPOS play, Adyen’s business was as an ecommerce platform — being the backend payments provider for companies including SoundCloud, Getty Images, Benetton, KLM, PopCap Games, Greenpeace, and Vodafone. Shuttle is a way for the company to cross-leverage that payment processing expertise in a mobile point-of-sale environment.