ShopKeep, the cloud-based small business technology provider used by more than 10,000 small business owners to manage retail shops and restaurants with iPads, Wednesday announced it is strengthening the security of its product with the release of an NFC for Apple Pay-enabled card reader, according to a press release.

ShopKeep said its new card reader brings the latest advancement in U.S. payment technology to thousands of merchants. It also provides merchants and consumers with an added layer of security because of the two-factor authentication needed for EMV smart card payments (chip and pin) and contactless payments, such as Apple Pay (biometrics and tokenization).

"From the day ShopKeep was launched, we offered our merchants card readers with point-to-point encryption to safeguard against hackers capturing, counterfeiting and selling their customers' payment data," Norm Merritt, president and co-CEO of ShopKeep, said in a statement. "We pride ourselves on supporting small business owners in their quest to be successful, and that includes security. Apple Pay and EMV represent the future of the payment industry, and we are strengthening our commitment to keeping merchants ahead of the curve."

ShopKeep will make the new card reader available for purchase beginning in November 2014.