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Is SquarePOS a flexible solution for different industries?
October 07, 2020

Is SquarePOS a flexible solution for different industries?

Nathan Sichilongo | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Square POS

A client approached us to set up a sales system for their services and we stumbled upon Square POS. The simplicity of the setup process impressed us and we were able to get it up and running for testing within an hour. Training staff members was straightforward and the client was able to scale things up quickly. The client mainly wanted a solution that would allow them to keep track of their business sales online whether they were physically there or not. For a small business, Square POS is great, but for those with more advanced needs, another solution may be required.
  • Ease of Use. POS systems tend to be very messy and technical to set up. Square POS is nothing like that, a few clicks and questions and you are on your way, it really does not get easier than this in my opinion.
  • Initial investment cost is lower than other offerings - Somehow Square has found a way of making the entry cost low by not charging an upfront fee which makes it better to start using it.
  • Square making reporting simple. And this is a theme around the pros of Square POS, the level of simplicity here is unmatched by other solutions.
  • The system is not modular and has limited use cases. For example, product sales will do better with this than say those in certain service industries. In the case of one of our clients in the hospitality industry, we had to add some modules to make it work.
  • Hidden costs for modules. While we were impressed with the setup process, we soon found that to get the right fit, we had to enlist other services and this slowly added to the cost.
  • Being able to easily set up a solution for a client saves time and cost and in the particular industry we implemented Square POS, we were able to cut lead time down significantly and training of personnel was also reduced which allowed the client to see an improvement in reporting within 3 months of implementation.
  • However the negative side is that since it is not modular, we were unable to get the same experience in a different industry and thus had to take on the learning curve of another solution. As mentioned if modular options were free or reasonable costs, Square POS would be a winner but this is not the case.
As mentioned we wanted a solution that fit the bill of our needs and one of the solutions we had looked at was Loyverse. While it offered modularity and was customizable to different industries, we ultimately chose Square POS because we felt the learning curve would not be as steep and being able to go from setup to deployment in a shorter time was key.

Loyverse is a better solution than Square POS in its own right but the setup process can be difficult if you are not well versed in the Android ecosystem.
Square POS support is good, I would not say they are great. There is a good knowledge base that you can access and there are other service providers who support Square POS who can assist you, but I find that the lack of help and support for setting it up for different industries is a let down. We had to research for hours just to find a solution to fix our need for a billing option for services for example. It would be great if Square POS broadened its support and solutions for various industries.
Once set up, Square POS is very easy to use. I feel it is a little too easy. Many other solutions have some layer of complexity to them but Square POS is pretty straightforward and this makes it the ideal POS solution in my opinion. If a solution can remove the barriers to use and allow end users to get on with their tasks without being slowed down, then it is a winner. This is what we were able to achieve with Square POS.

Do you think Square POS delivers good value for the price?

Not sure

Are you happy with Square POS's feature set?

No

Did Square POS live up to sales and marketing promises?

No

Did implementation of Square POS go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Square POS again?

Yes

I would recommend it for small businesses those that sell physical products and collecting payments easily. This is where Square POS shines. It is in the services industry that Square lacks greatly because it is not modular to the needs of those who provide different services. If there was modularity say the way Woocommerce for Wordpress is set up, then Square POS would be a winner but at the moment modularity is limited. I think there are other free solutions that people can look at that can cater to those industries.