Square Partners with Postmates So Operators Can Offer On-Demand Delivery

According to an article on Venture Beat, “Square is partnering with courier network Postmates to bring on-demand deliveries to more restaurants and retailers. The integration, which is rolling out today, will enable retailers—of any size—that use Square’s payments platform to offer customers the option of having any item delivered.”

Square is best known for its mobile purchase functionality, but “it has branched out into all manner of commerce-related verticals as it targets a bigger piece of the small business pie,” according to the article. Square already offers delivery services through Caviar, which it acquired in 2014, as well as other purchased platforms Fastbite and Entrees on-Trays, according to the article. However, “a Postmates partnership opens up Square’s delivery smarts significantly.”

“San Francisco-based Postmates, which recently expanded to more than 1,000 cities as it gears up for its impending IPO, now covers 70% of U.S. households,” the article said. According to the article, Postmates boasts about 300,000 couriers to “connect the dots between retailers and consumers” and help “brick-and-mortar merchants embrace online commerce.”

“Though Postmates does focus a lot on food delivery, it is open to delivering just about any product, which is why it may be a good fit for Square,” the article said.