Square is already well known for the way it brought credit card transactions into the hands of small businesses and sole traders. Now it has gone one step further and announced its latest creation which is a register app for the iPad. The new app aims to replace a traditional POS (point of sale) cash register with an iPad.
"I truly believe POS, as you know it today, is dead," says Megan Quinn, director of products at Square. "This will bring Square to an entirely new, small-market audience (bricks-and-mortar stores)." The new app extends Square far beyond just a payment-processing service. It replicates and, Square claims, enhances the features of a cash register for mom-and-pop storefronts. The app accepts cash and credit payments, lets merchants easily list menu items, and tracks the history of customers' purchases.
The app which is called Square Register will be offered for free and Square will make its money through its existing revenue stream of taking 2.75% of every credit card transaction made using its service. The app also contains a highly impressive analytics application which will allow any small business to assess sales data and then tailor all aspects of their business to maximise sales.
Source: USA Today
Square Register from Square on Vimeo.
Reader comments
Replace your cash register with Square Register app for iPad
The new app aims to replace a traditional POS (piece of sh*t) cash register with an iPad.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, we just spent $1000 for the LightSpeed POS for a small business about 30 days ago. Wish I would have known this was being released.
there's two things going for this.
1. 2.75% may not be great for a large business but for a small shop with the single terminal setup a merchant account with all four brands of card support can cost as much as an ipad does or more in a year. for the single terminal that's not too shabby a savings. and one has an ipad.
Too bad it wasn't mentioned to use the Square service you have to submit your date of birth and social security number to them, and then they do a credit check on you. This is not told to you until you've downloaded their app and want to activate your account. PayPal only requires a bank account verification via a few micro deposits; they never require anything from you that an identity thief could use.
I didn't have to give that info
What square has done is great. I have seen another start-up at a recent event that was showcasing a product that does the same thing. It has some advantages that might better suit bigger retailers as the square app is pretty feeble in terms of a pos system. That said it is beautiful, The start-up was Tillify.com and they are allowing vendors to use their own merchant account and also use PC's or Android Tablets as well as IPads.
It looked very well thought out and like a serious contender in this field.
http://www.tillify.com
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Interesting. Square ups the ante in the race to capture the retail market. App looks beautiful, and intuitive. Perfect for small businesses, but I suspect larger companies with complex inventory, ecommerce, 'chip and pin cards' or accounting needs will find it difficult to move to Square Register.
But then I would. I work for another iPad point of sale app. But its still good to see the well funded bigger players up the bar a little further for retailers :)
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