San Francisco-based Revel Systems is essentially the industry leader when it comes to iPad-based point-of-sale (POS) for restaurants, grocery and now retail, and today it’s adding additional security features that provide an added level of comfort for users and merchants. Revel 2.0 brings a new identity theft protection system to the POS, which shows an image of the credit card holder on the merchant’s screen whenever they use their credit card.
The new system goes above and beyond the requirements for PCI compliance that Revel already builds into its project, and adds to both chip-and-pin support, which is especially useful in a swipe card-based credit card economy like that found in the U.S. Many merchants already request photo ID when conducting credit card transactions, but having no photo on file to compare it to means the possibility for identity theft and fraud still exists.
With the new Revel system, users will have to sign up for an account on their own in order for their photo to show up when they make a transaction. Revel CTO and co-founder Chris Ciabarra explained in an interview that they’ll be prompted to do this every time they receive a receipt from a Revel-enabled merchant or business. The Revel account can be set up easily via Facebook integration, instantly providing access to a photo of a user without even requiring any uploads. Of course, the new security feature also points people towards Revel’s growing consumer network, which helps the company learn more about the people using its products.
“It helps the merchant so they don’t lose money, and it helps the card holder so they don’t lose their identity,” Ciabarra said, talking about the main benefits for Revel’s customers. The FTC found that 12.6 million Americans fell prey to ID theft in 2012, which actually isn’t a record – 13.9 million was the highest, back in 2009. But simple credit card fraud still accounts for around two-thirds in total. Adding preventative measures to Revel’s POS shows that the startup isn’t just looking to innovate in terms of software and hardware, but also in the way that transactions are handled and secured.
Revel 2.0 also adds a number of other features, including the MDM partnership with Moki Mobility that also boosts the overall system’s security measures, and allows for things like remote wipe and lock down of stolen units. There’s also delivery tracking, driver time logs, SumUp payments for UK and European merchants and more.
The iPad and tablet-based POS space is heating up, with a lot of smaller players like Koupah entering the fray, but Ciabarra is confident that updates like this one, as well as Revel’s head start and success expanding to new verticals like retail will help keep it ahead of the pack.