What made you choose Square over other merchant platforms?

[isabelle]

Hello Seller Community! ✨

I'm back with another Question of the Week. This week we're wondering....

What made you choose Square over other merchant platforms? 🤔 

We cannot wait to read your replies! 💕👀 

[villagegreenMT]

I've been in business long enough to remember when credit card processing was a complete boondoggle. Contracts, mystery rates, leases on outdated equipment, and the constant sales calls from competing processors. Don't even get me started on how terrible cash registers were. At first we signed up for Square just to escape all that, and saved about $1000 on processing in the first year.

For my second business I chose Square again for the reporting, iOS apps, and Capital program, in addition to the reasons above.

[TCSlaguna]

I agree with @villagegreenMT , what Square did for the industry was phenomenal. I still have nightmares about calling the processor company, and having to push magical keys on the processor's keypad to download a software update. Strange stuff. 

Then Square Retail came out, and had vendor lists and purchase orders. That's when I knew it was time for our store to make the switch. Little did I know that the reports Square provides at a glance would completely change the way we do business, making reordering simple, based on data of which items are best-sellers, and how many employees to staff on which days. 

I will admit, I did do research into other merchant platforms. However, I looked around and saw every successful store I was visiting was using Square. Clearly they must have done their research. So glad we made the right decision. The Seller Community has helped our business grow immensely. I do not know where we would be without Square. 

[Minion]

I've been through a fair share of different companies when it comes to taking credit cards, Even though I do still offer PayPal on my website Square as my go to for basically everything. With the ease of use, and it fits my needs exactly how I want it to.  The products that are offered for free are comparable if not better than other companies. Even those products that are available for a low monthly cost are worth it if that product fits into your business. 

So really it's Apples to Oranges for me when it comes to choosing Square over other companies. 

[OCSOCopShop]

We chose Square because of compatibility with our online GoDaddy website / store. Complete inventory was easily uploaded and sales began immediately. The transaction fees were reasonable and service is provided without contract. The monthly subscription fee for our POS is a bit pricey

[RiverMaiden]

No swipe fee. Coffee shops (especially 10 years ago) have/had many small transactions. A $0.10 swipe fee on a $2.00 transaction was/is death.

[OurCupCakery]

Could you expand on your comment?  Square has a swipe fee.

[cbm]

Agreed, It has a 2.9% + $0.30 per swipe.

[GourmetOnWheels]

Before Square came around I had a mobile terminal it was huge. The Wireless connection cost 19.95/month, statement fee was $19.95/month. Ordinary Cards rate 1.2% +$0.35 (There were no more Ordinary cards 14 years ago, only reward and corporate cards)

Visa/Master Cards 2.6% + $0.35, Amex 3.3% + $0.35, Discover 3.6% + $0.35.

When Square came around I compared the Square rates to my rates and I realized I paid an average of 8%

11 years ago I moved to Square and have not regretted anything.

René

[grovecookieco]

That's great to hear!

Grayson

www.grovecookiecompany.com

[GourmetOnWheels]

Besides the massive savings, Square in these 11 years has expanded, with many other tools that are great for small businesses.

A lot of these tools have made my business easier to operate and communicate with my customers.

Another observation

After reading the Facebook papers, It shows they are losing young customers by the boatload the drain is not so bad at Instagram, but it is growing and What's App users a in droves switching to Signal all these trends are in the USA.

I think Square should focus on integration in marketing, and online with Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, and TikTok and beat Mailchimp Marketing to the punch, as they only integrate with Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. And Mailchimp websites also only work with Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

And the Mailchimp website's only payment system is Stripe.

It is time for Square to call Quickbooks and tell them they need Square and the Cash App as payment methods at Mailchimp Online.

René

[grovecookieco]

Howdy!

Square was our preferred choice because of the reviews they have received for in-person sales and customer rewards on blogs and review boards. We've been happy so far!

Grayson

www.grovecookiecompany.com

[Tiny2Teen]

Education information provided. Ease of transactions. Able to understand where fees are going. 

[Chanswager]

Hardware,especially the Bluetooth card readers

[Donnie-M]

The Free Point of Sale software was the clincher for me several years ago.  The ability to use it on virtually any tablet and have consolidated reporting was awesome.

Fast forward 4 years, it is now the eco system and online ordering.  I actively use the point of sale, online ordering sites for multiple locations, team management (permissions and time cards), KDS integration, messages, & more.

I have looked at other point of sale systems and the current models of software as a service (SAS) required custom hardware purchase and fees for each and every terminal.  No matter how much cheaper they are on the "processing rate" when you factor in the cost of the software/hardware spread over each transaction, they just cost more.

Is square perfect? No.  Is it more complete than anything else out there?  YES

Square is always trying to improve their products, and I like being able to pick and choose what I want to use.  The freemium model works for me.  I pay for what I need, not what I don't.

Donnie-M

[Zaxius42]

I have used Square for about two years now. I chose it and continue to use it in large part because of the invoicing options.  I own a virtual events agency and we need to secure a 50% deposit pre-event.  Square is the only payments platform that allows me to send a single invoice with two due dates and due portions. 

I also love being able to attach my service contracts to the invoice and the multiple ways to share said invoice with the client.  

If I added two things to Square, it would be the ability to change an items price in the line without having to create that price in the backend (sometimes we are in a unique position where discounting the original price will not present as well); and to allow for ACH payments in split invoices (ones with multiple due dates cannot pay with ACH atm). Some of our enterprise clients' invoices can get pretty high and they prefer to pay in ACH.  However, atm the only way I can accomplish this is two invoices, one for deposit one for closing.

Thanks for a great product!!

[Thevioletfox]

When I first started my business, just over a year ago, I knew that Square was the gold standard in the industry. After doing my research and learning that Square would handle my payment processing AND allow me to build a website with ecommerce included, it was top of my list. I knew that my business was going to rely on being flexible and mobile to do events and pop-ups, so having the ability to take my Square reader anywhere was also a huge plus! I love that Square integrates with so many other platforms as well - like my Instagram and Facebook shops. I loved that the website builder and ecommerce tools were so intuitive and easy to use. And last but not least - I started my business from literally nothing (no loans, no startup cash), so having a free/basic version to start with and build my business from there has been critical.  Someday, we hope to be doing enough business to be able to take advantage of ALL that Square has to offer. 

[Donnie-M]

This is my big thing, square gets you going cheap or for nothing at all.  Also, they are great about letting you try out the add-ons for 30 days and see if you like it.  No contracts means, even if you buy something like loyalty and after 3 months it isn't for you, you can just take it off.  I give square credit, they are really doing what no one else is doing and listening to their customers.  

[quarterhorseinn]

Recommended by website designer

[Anthem]

Ease of setup, free POS option, a sustainable tool to run a business from phone/web, and straightforward approach to fees brought us in. Commitment to excellence, expanding their usefulness, desire to work with seller community toward constant improvement, and the willingness to challenge the usual while looking for creative, simple solutions to everyday business problems - This makes us engaged participants and advocates to everyone willing to listen. 

We bought our first business 9 years ago - day one, switched to Square. Saved over $7.5k in fees that first year. About to buy our second business and will switch processing to Square - day one. Will be starting our third business mid-year 2022 and will repeat steps one and two.

Thank you Square team for your commitment to support the seller community. Maybe an even bigger thank you to the seller community for your commitment to constantly return the effort by engaging in the hard work of helping them build a better tool, daily. 

[JK_Fiber_Art]

Love the concept of only paying for the services you need - in the past we had to deal with our local bank - we payed a monthly fee plus transaction fees.  Since we were only doing summer markets at the time as we did not have a brick and mortar shop, there was always the ongoing monthly fee - sale or no sale.  We then switched to PayPal as we only had costs when we had sales - a great concept however dealing with PayPal was a challenge and they may say they have seller protection however, in most scenarios, the buyer not only gets the item, they get their money back too.   Square seemed to be our best choice as we really have not had any issues since switching.

JK