Groupon Introduces Gnome, an iPad-Powered Point-of-Sale System

Groupon today announced Gnome, a new point-of-sale system that integrates with the company's network of daily local deals. The iPad-based system provides a payment processing system as well as customer management tools for merchants that offer Groupon deals.

In addition to serving as an all-in-one cash register solution, Gnome allows customers to redeem their purchased Groupon offers either manually through the system or automatically if they have the Groupon app installed on their smartphone. Merchants can then access this customer data and use it to help improve future deals. It also improves the overall experience by minimizing those unfortunate occurrences when a user enters a business to redeem a deal, and the business is not equipped to process the offer.

"When it's complete, Gnome will serve as an operating system for merchants to run their entire operation and enable them to create real-time promotions that bring customers into their business when they need them the most," Groupon CEO Eric Lefkofsky said in a release. "Gnome is an important step towards our long-term mission of creating a world where merchants are constantly connected to the Groupon local commerce platform."

Extending beyond Groupon vouchers, the POS system also can accept traditional payments, similar to Square's Square Register. This Gnome system provides emailed receipts, calculates taxes, and helps manage inventory for the retailer. According to Re/Code, Groupon is charging 1.8 percent plus 15 cents for Visa and Mastercard transactions, along with a $10 monthly Gnome fee, for the POS service.

Groupon Gnome is already in use by select retailers with "tens of thousands" of merchants expected adopt the system in the coming months.