Square Building Recommendation Engine Based on Payment Data
Square is tapping its repository of payment data to construct an engine for making local recommendations, which someday could suggest places to visit according to a customer’s purchase history. The idea is that users who pay with Square using its Wallet app will be displayed suggestions for other items they might purchase. The payment data is automatically recorded, without the seller or buyer having to make any extra effort. Square’s Ajit Varma believes the service under development will eventually offer something much better than simple dining and shopping recommendations. Square would have certain advantages when it enters the market, including a user base of 3 million and a merchant base of 330,000, and a foothold in mainstream retail through its alliance with Starbucks. Nevertheless, Square must surmount considerable hurdles if it is to become a trusted source of recommendations. Privacy issues entail that Square will never reveal what a user’s friends purchased, while the company has no plans to include customer reviews on its directory pages. In addition, its recommendations currently are restricted to Square-accepting merchants.
From “Square Sets Its Sights on Check-ins: ‘We Can Do Something Better'”
The Verge (05/03/13) Newton, Casey