If you’re one of those budding entrepreneurs that can’t quit their day job yet but love to participate in weekend bazaars and arts and crafts fairs, chances are, you’ve encountered potential buyers that ask you if you can take plastic. But unless you have a “real” business, you most likely can’t, even with online transactions (except if you have Square or Paypal). Etsy believes that it’s growing community has need of this service and so they are now offering a “Sell on Etsy Reader” and an accompanying app to help you out.
Etsy has become a huge e-commerce site and community for people who are looking for hand-made items rather than what you can normally buy in a mall or even on Amazon. And since there are a lot of sellers who are not really big business owners out there, it does make sense for Etsy to offer this kind of product and service. As soon as you get your card reader (which keeping in the spirit of the site, looks hand-made and crafts-y), you can attach it to your smartphone and pair it using the updated app.
All the funds from the cards you swipe on the gadget will go straight to your Etsy account. You can either use the Etsy shop inventory or the Quick Sale feature (you just need to enter a price). Even if you don’t have the device, you can also do manual card entry on the app in case you don’t feel like using a card swiper for your transactions.
The card reader itself is free and they just charge you 2.75% per transaction. If you use the Manual card entry option, you’ll be charged 3% plus $0.25 per sale. The Quick Sale doesn’t have additional fee and there are no charges as well for sales made in person. The card reader is just available in the US for now, but there will be plans to expand it to other territories soon.
VIA: SlashGear
