Owner in Sales at Nerdy Catholic Tees (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use Square for retail on my e-commerce website to process online payments next to PayPal. Square for Retail makes it very easy for me to collect credit card payments on my website without having to worry about saving and storing people's credit card information. I like the security of not having personal credit card information of other people to worry about securing. The process of collecting payments and transferring money is very easy as well.

Pros

ease of collecting payments
transfer money collected to other accounts
using Square card to access money collected as payments on my website

Cons

I can not transfer money directly from Square to PayPal, that would be very helpful
A mobile app that you can use to manage all the things you can manage on the website.
more ways to get fee free transactions.

Most Important Features

easy to use card scanner.
easily integrates with WooCommerce for online credit card processing.
ability to transfer money to other accounts
you can have a debit card to quickly use money in your account.

Return on Investment

Square is quick to impliment, both online and for in person transactions
It is all very easy to use.
There is no up front monetary investment required.

Alternatives Considered

Braintree and a PayPal service

Other Software Used

WooCommerce, Yoast Wordpress SEO Plugins, Google Analytics

Bobby Greenawalt View profile

Founder & President in Corporate at Beverage Management (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

It is used for our everyday POS system. It is amazing at being custom, modular, and a fit for just about any business. The flexibility of the equipment to work anywhere, including in the middle of a field, is absolutely pivotal. We use this from weddings to music festivals and has been the main resource for our company for over a decade.

Pros

Invoices
Cash Sales
Portable sales

Cons

Editing interface from the website instead of having to use an ipad
Some tab limits are extremely difficult to monitor
User permissions, allowing users to have codes to access certain sectors without having to use device codes.

Most Important Features

Inventory
Device Management
Security.

Return on Investment

The ability to accept cards in a remote location is a driving force behind our success in being sustainable and up to date with technology.

Hugh Morris

Owner in Sales at LUMOS HEARTH & HOME (1-10 employees employees)

Pros

Customer Management - Great to be able to track specific needs of specific customers.
Inventory management - Awesome to be able to see a snapshot of our levels.
Estimating and Invoicing - So helpful to be able to track close rates of estimates, and to be able to offer terms and milestones on invoicing high dollar tickets.
Reporting - Square offers fantastic comparative reporting, as well as trends, profitability, and various other data-driven reports.

Cons

Serialization - I wish that Square for Retail had the ability to Serialize items. We sell hot tubs in our store, and Square has no ability to add a Serial Number to a Specifically received product. For example, if I get a truck of 10 Hot Tubs, there may be 3 on that truck that [is] exactly the same. It would be great to be able to allocate a serial number to each spa, and then allocate that serial number and spa to a customer once it was purchased.
Square for Retail's HelpDesk leaves something to be desired. It can be very difficult to get ahold of a customer service rep by calling the 1800 number for tech services. This caused a massive problem for us starting out but was remedied by Square having a dedicated Rep at our disposal. I have his direct line, and he gives us much help when we need it.
I suppose I would like to see a more "All-Inclusive" product, something that would provide its own Accounts Payable portal, rather than need to integrate with Quickbooks. We love QB but the interface between Square for Retail and QB is not ideal, particularly with high volume. Maybe this is something we just need more education on, but it seems clunky.

Return on Investment

Initial Cost - We considered [another] point of sale software that was geared for our industry, with entry costs nearing $10K, granted, these pieces of software are a bit more in-depth, involving bookkeeping elements to the software, however, Square for Retail and Quickbooks together solve most of our issues. The relatively small investment into getting set up with Square for Retail and the hardware for a point of sale has paid dividends.
Reports - In-depth reporting gives us the ability to make decisions on the fly. When seasons change, and our business pivots, we are able to look at historical data to remain conservative, yet balanced in our ordering. This in itself has been a great tool, optimizing our capital, and enabling flexibility.
Processing Fee - Square for Retail provides a flat-rate processing fee for credit card transactions. This has allowed us to price our products accordingly, and not have the worry of someone paying with an AMEX and incurring us with higher processing rates seen with other card processing fees. We generally know very close to exactly what our processing fee will be for the period, which gives us security in our pricing strategy.

Alternatives Considered

Evosus Pro, Lightspeed Platform (formerly Relay), Xero and QuickBooksPOS

Other Software Used

QuickBooks Online Advanced, Google Analytics, Google Drive

Verified User

C-Level Executive in Information Technology (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Square for Retail as our main POS system for in-person payments, as well as our scheduling and payment collection system for appointments that are booked and delivered online. As a company providing life coaching and hypnotherapy services, it is key that we are able to manage appointments and charge for services online, as well as in person. It is great that Square allows us to do both in one system while adding calendar management too.

Pros

POS payment collection
Appointment setting and management
Online payment collection

Cons

Speed of fund transfer/availability
Website look and feel
Collecting payment for events/ticket sales

Most Important Features

Online appointment setting
Automated messaging with customers
Billing/invoicing and payment collection
Calendar management and integration with Google Calendar

Return on Investment

Simplicity: Integration of appointment management and billing
Time saving: Quick management of billable services
Time Management: Integration of Google calendar and customer-facing appointment calendar

Other Software Used

HubSpot CRM, Salesforce CMS, Slack, Google Ad Manager, Facebook Business Manager, Rippling, Atlassian Jira Align, Jira Service Management (Jira Service Desk), Trello, ChurnZero, Zoom, Wix

Verified User

Analyst in Research & Development (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Square to checkout in person point of sale. It helps us take card payments with fair transaction fees and makes it very convenient for our customers and users in turn. Not only does Square offer an easy to use physical reader, but the person doing the point of sale transaction can also run the card number using the app.

Pros

Point of sale transactions
Ease of use and convenient payment method for customers
Receipts and transaction records for the business and customers
Multiple ways to pay
Fair transaction fees

Cons

Add support for Apple Pay and other contactless payment methods faster

Most Important Features

Point of sale checkout features
Accounting, transaction reporting, and receipts feature

Return on Investment

Square has helped us be able to grow revenue substantially thanks to convenient payments
Square has allowed us to improve our recording and accounting

Alternatives Considered

Stripe

Other Software Used

Stripe

Square for Retail

What is Square for Retail?

Categories & Use Cases

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