Card data output for cardless transactions
Disclosed are method and apparatus that enable a cardless payment transaction to be executed from a merchant point-of-sale (POS) system. A user is enabled to check in at a merchant by using a mobile device of the user and then to pay by simply appearing at the merchant and mentioning his name. By emulating card read events and intercepting receipt printer outputs, the technique cleanly integrates into a conventional merchant POS system, without the need for customized software or hardware to accommodate individual POS vendor-proprietary application programming interfaces (APIs).
1. A method comprising:
detecting, by a transaction-initiating software module executing on a point-of-sale (POS) device of a merchant registered with a cardless payment service system, an indication of an intent to initiate a payment transaction at the POS device between the merchant and a customer registered with the cardless payment service system;
sending, by the transaction-initiating software module and to one or more servers associated with the cardless payment service system, a request for a financial account number for a financial account of the customer;
receiving, by the transaction-initiating software module and from the one or more servers associated with the cardless payment service system, the financial account number, the financial account number having been stored by the one or more servers associated with the cardless payment service system when the customer registered with the cardless payment service system and prior to the payment transaction; and
initiating, by the transaction-initiating software module and at least partly in response to receiving the financial account number, the payment transaction by outputting, from the transaction-initiating software module to a POS application executing on the POS device, payment authorization request data including or based at least in part on the financial account number.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising sending, by the POS application, a payment authorization request for the payment transaction based at least in part on the payment authorization request data.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein sending, by the POS application, the payment authorization request comprises sending the payment authorization request to a credit card issuer via one or both of a card acquirer or a card network.
4. The method of claim 2 , wherein sending, by the POS application, the payment authorization request comprises sending the payment authorization request to the one or more servers associated with the cardless payment service system.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transaction-initiating software module is included in the POS application.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transaction-initiating software module is separate from the POS application, the method further comprising causing the transaction-initiating software module to output the payment authorization request data to the POS application via an application programming interface (API).
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the payment authorization request data comprises data emulating a payment instrument read event for the payment transaction, wherein the payment instrument read event is associated with a payment instrument comprising at least one of a magnetic stripe, an integrated circuit (IC) card, a barcode, a quick response (QR) code, an optical code, or a radio frequency identifier.
8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the API is a payment instrument reader API of the POS application and is proprietary to a third party.
9. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform actions comprising:
detecting, via a transaction-initiating software module executing on a point-of-sale (POS) device of a merchant registered with a cardless payment service system, an indication of an intent to initiate a payment transaction, at the POS device, between the merchant and a customer registered with the cardless payment service system;
sending, by the transaction-initiating software module and to one or more servers of the cardless payment service system, a request for a financial account number for a financial account of the customer;
receiving, via the transaction-initiating software and from the one or more servers of the cardless payment service system, the financial account number, the financial account number having been stored by the one or more servers of the cardless payment service system when the customer registered with the cardless payment service system and prior to the payment transaction; and
initiating, at least partly in response to receiving the financial account number, the payment transaction by outputting, from the transaction-initiating software and to a POS application executing on the POS device, payment authorization request data including or based at least in part on the financial account number.
10. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 9 , further comprising sending, via the POS application, a payment authorization request for the payment transaction based at least in part on the payment authorization request data.
11. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 10 , wherein sending the payment authorization request comprises sending, via the POS application, the payment authorization request to a credit card issuer via one or both of a card acquirer or a card network.
12. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 10 , wherein sending the payment authorization request comprises sending, via the POS application, the payment authorization request to the one or more servers of the cardless payment service system.
13. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 9 , wherein the financial account number comprises a debit card number or a credit card number.
14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 9 , wherein outputting the payment authorization request data to the POS application is caused at least in part by invoking an application programming interface (API).
15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 14 , wherein the API is a payment instrument reader API of the POS application.
16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 9 , wherein the payment authorization request data comprises data emulating a payment instrument read event for the payment transaction, wherein a payment instrument includes at least one of a magnetic stripe, an integrated circuit (IC) card, a barcode, a quick response (QR) code, an optical code, or a radio frequency identifier.
17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the financial account number comprises a debit card number or a credit card number.
18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 14 , wherein the API comprises an API proprietary to a third-party.
19. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 9 , wherein the transaction-initiating software module is included in the POS application.
20. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 9 , wherein the transaction-initiating software module is separate from the POS application.
21. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 20 , wherein POS device and the POS application are associated with a third party to the cardless payment service system and the transaction-initiating software module is provided to the POS device by the one or more servers of the cardless payment service system.