SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - May 1, 2013) - Square, the company making commerce easy for everyone, has hired Alex Petrov to be the company's Vice President of Partnerships. Petrov's extensive background in retail, consumer products, and payments will help drive strategic business development and customer acquisition for Square. He was previously the Vice President of Consumer Brands at Safeway, where he led the marketing and growth of Safeway's private brands portfolio, launching over 1,000 new products.
"Square's passion for innovation and its relentless focus on the customer experience completely change how retailers can do business," said Petrov. "I look forward to bringing Square to merchants of all sizes, from local businesses to the largest retailers in the world."
Petrov was most recently the Vice President of Retail Marketing at PayPal, where he was responsible for merchant marketing and launching PayPal into an offline retail environment. He was previously president of Lucerne Foods Inc., where he built the wholly-owned Safeway subsidiary into a growing consumer product organization, marketing branded and private label solutions such as Lucerne, O Organics, and Eating Right to domestic and international retail customers. He was also a marketing executive at Nestlé, the world's largest food company. A former NATO paratrooper, Petrov received his MBA from the John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA.
While Square usage continues to grow on smartphones, it is growing at a faster rate on iPads, where customers are using Square as a full point of sale system. iPad customers now represent nearly 50% of total payments processed by Square. The average payment volume processed by these customers is also more than double the average volume processed by Square customers using smartphones.
About Square, Inc. Square is making commerce easy for everyone. Starting with a free credit card reader for the iPhone, iPad, and Android devices, Square Reader allows anyone to accept credit cards anywhere, anytime, for a low transaction rate of 2.75 percent per swipe, with no hidden fees. Square Register serves as a full point-of-sale system for businesses to accept payments, manage items, and share menu and location information. Square Wallet, available in the US, is the most seamless way to pay, enabling individuals to pay at their favorite local businesses, discover new ones nearby, explore menu listings, and store receipts. Founded in 2009, and headquartered in San Francisco, Square is currently available in the U.S. and Canada. More information is available at squareup.com.
