Erply Takes On Square And Intuit With NFC Enabled-Mobile Credit Card Reader For iOS

Erply, a company that develops retail inventory management software, is taking on Square, Intuit and VeriFone today with a new mobile credit card reader for iOS devices. Erply’s credit card device connects to an iPad or iPhone and will transmit a customer’s encrypted credit card data to its own point of sale and inventory management software suite to process payments.

With the Erply’s reader, a retailer attaches the device to an iPad or iPhone’s charging port and this communicates with the company’s POS software to process the transaction and record the sale in inventory. The credit card information is actually encrypted inside the device, ensuring that the transaction is safe and secure.

The benefit for the reader to connection with inventory management is that it offers a comprehensive solution for retailers instead of having to user different software. And this works especially well in retail environments, where there are large amounts of inventory. Plus, founder Kristian Hiiemaa says that the reader is NFC enabled for mobile transactions.

Erply’s credit card reader is priced at $50 with a 1.9% transaction fee slightly less than Square, VeriFone and Intuit’s fees. Square recently dropped its $0.15 transaction fee, and charges merchants a flat 2.75 percent fee. Intuit made a similar move. But Square’s reader and software is free, whereas Erply’s software ranges anywhere from $70 to $1000 per month. Erply can also leverage its existing user base of 20,000 retailers who use the company’s software for inventory management.

Of course, it’s important to note that Intuit’s GoPayment reader integrates with popular accounting software Quickbooks, and Square has also developed a more comprehensive point of sale system with its latest iPad app. And Square is growing particularly fast amongst small businesses.

Erply actually is a Seedcamp winner and has raised raised $2 million in funding from Redpoint and Index Ventures, Marten Mickos, Zack Urlocker (both formerly of MySQL), Kenny van Zant (SolarWinds), Aydin Senkut, David McClure and the Accelerator Group. Erply’s mobile credit card reader is available now for the iPad and will be available within three months for the iPhone.