Bindo is a retail technology company, headquartered in New York, NY with APAC headquarters in Hong Kong. Its core product is a cloud-based iPad point of sale (POS) system that enables online shopping for the end consumers. Bindo is an NYC startup that realizes the breadth of business opportunity in Hong Kong. Bindo has developed a ‘Square’-type mobile payment solution for the local market and has their office in Hong Kong Science Park. Bindo was founded in October 2010, by JoMing Au, Brad Lauster, and Jason Ngan. It was initially started by Ngan and JoMing.
In an interview, Ngan said, “JoMing and I have been best friends since college. We share a similar interest in tech and gadgets. We started trading all kind of consumer electronics on eBay and Amazon since college and profit from price arbitrage. One of the biggest hassles is shipping, which is both tedious and expensive. After selling half millions of merchandise online, we started to wonder why there isn’t a local platform to streamline sales and fulfillment. In 2011, we quit our job to work on a few consulting projects and then sparked the idea of indexing inventory of local businesses. In 2013, we launched the private beta for Bindo POS and have signed up over a hundred of stores”.
Bindo POS is a sleek, powerful cloud-based POS system with mobile capabilities. It offers inventory management, customer management, and e-Commerce within their suite. In 2015, Bindo has released Bindo Marketplace: a consumer app that aggregates all merchants and products using Bindo POS onto one platform. This app allows consumers to make online purchases from their favorite neighborhood stores and get their orders delivered directly to their doors. This scalable solution even works well for stores that carry thousands of different items at a time.
Bindo offers hundreds of features to help you manage sales and run your business from your iPad POS system. Some features are as:-
- Credit Card Processing: Bindo lets you accept major credit and debit cards issued by Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express, as well as Diner’s Club and JCB. Bindo is also NFC-capable, so you can accept mobile payments like Apple Pay. Additionally, Bindo is EMV-ready and comes with a free EMV credit card reader so you can stay compliant with EMV regulations.
- Mobile POS: In addition to the iPad POS, you can take Bindo with you and turn your iPhone into a POS system. The Bindo mPOS app lets you accept credit cards, manage inventory, view reports and perform myriad tasks on the go.
- Automatically generate customer profiles from credit card swipes.
- Launch and maintain a customer loyalty program that also lets you track spending and rewards.
- View individual purchase histories to create personalized offers, marketing materials, and in-store experiences.
- Discover top customers and how much they have spent at your store monthly, annually, and during the lifetime of their business with you.
One of the best things about Bindo is that if you need help using its POS, you can get help 24/7 and speak to a live person whenever you need it. Bindo’s customer support can be reached via phone, email, social media, and live chat on the Bindo website.
Benedict Wong who is the Vice President of Business Development of Bindo said, “Hong Kong is one of Asia’s most vibrant cities and compared to anywhere else in the world and it is relatively easier to set up a company here. With a lot of well-known tech companies establishing themselves in the region, there is a rapidly growing startup ecosystem for entrepreneurs to thrive”.
