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! 💕👀 

[erikjones]

The future forward vision of the company and its leaders combined with the immense talent on the development teams makes Square an easy choice!

Paying any attention to how Square conducts the entire scope of its business only confirms the ability to cast a vision and execute on it. The integration of CashApp, the recent purchase of Afterpay, the soon coming white paper project or the talk about potentially turning every Square seller into a Bitcoin contributor (mining, lightning integration, etc.)...it all supports Square's mission to not only empower sellers and their customers, but people in general.

Square is a company that simultaneously creates the future and executes the present. As a young business owner, the simplicity Square provides today paired with the path it's forging for tomorrow makes the decision easy! Proud to be using Square 🙂

[MMGill]

Isabelle,

Ease of use is the most important, speed at the terminal ,quick transfers, no hidden costs, loan availability and finical info at my fingertips. We have tried other terminals years ago and experienced nothing but problems.

The only drawback to square is the inability to speak with a person when a major problem arises

Michael

[BSLprints]

A big thing is square is more like a modern customer-focused tech company than a traditional credit card processing company. For all of Square's faults (which there are many), y'alls customer service tends to be better most others and that goes a long way. Just having Square employees in the forums is miles ahead of what most companies do.

Another important thing was that I could set it up for free with no fee to maintain it. I was basically homeless when I started my business and $10/mo or mandatory hardware purchase would have been off the table. I was able to sign up for Square and barely use it for the first couple years without any costs beyond transaction fees. Now my business is successful and having a good tool for processing credit cards right from the start certainly helped.

[LukeNieuw]

I struggled for YEARS trying to implement software that would work across the board at my business. I own a golf course https://www.whiskyrun.com/ , which is like 8 businesses: Golf Course, Retail Shop, Bar, Restaurant, Events, Professional Services (Golf Lessons), E-Commerce & Landscaping rolled into one.

I found myself hacking together anywhere from 4-6 DIFFERENT systems to get what I wanted done and nothing in my industry was doing the trick.

In late 2019 a mentor of mine told me about Square and that I should look at it because he saw the struggles I was having with our current setup. 

I loved what I saw and went all-in! The only thing missing was a reservations system that worked for our niche in golf. I ended up becoming a partner in a startup https://www.birrdigolf.com/ that solved that. It’s a golf tee time reservation system that integrates completely with Square.

Bridging the Brick & Mortar to Online/E-Commerce was always a massive pain point and I was finally able to do it all under one system, Square.

Having everything report back to one Dashboard is amazing. Being able to pull reports in real time and make decisions based on that data in a matter of seconds has SAVED me so much time. I no longer have to run to 4 different dashboards/reporting systems and export/import a bunch of spreadsheets to pull together what I need. It’s been a massive relief. 

Not to mention the time saved from trying to figure out what my previous payment processor was effectively charging me. Not the “base rate” which they tell you but the effective rate ie. all the different card rates at the end of the year, it made my head spin! We once uncovered a monthly fee we had been paying for “business consulting” and the only problem with that was we NEVER had any business consulting from that payment processor! Craziness. Thanks for having transparent rates Square!

The Team Management has been awesome. Being able to track my individual team member sales and see who is performing well or who is struggling provides great feedback. We never really had a QUICK way of enabling our team to track their individual sales before this.

The Loyalty program is AMAZING. We’ve seen some incredible results. This year to date we saw Loyalty Customers spent 198% MORE than Non-Loyalty Customers!! Incredible info. And Loyalty customers averaged 10.8 Visits versus 1.7 for Non-Loyalty Customers. This stuff works! I’ve tested multiple Loyalty programs with my previous systems and nothing has come close to Square Loyalty. Implementing it was a breeze, it works across my entire operation and the data capture post purchase is genius!

I could probably go on and on but I think that about sums it up 🙂

[Lesley7]

No monthly fee.  I set up my Square account based on the fact that I had pipes burst in my office, and had to move out during January of 2018.  I set up the Square account then, along with out mobile options, my consultation fees went up.  I had guaranteed meetings 95% of the time and knew I was paid up front.  I have never looked back.  When the pandemic hit, my office was already mobile and we just continued that way ever since.  When the pandemic ends and courts are fully open, I will go back to my office and keep Square as my consultation booking site.  Simply put, it simply works.

[mackphotography]

ESPN called me and wanted to hire me to take photos for the OKLAHOMA BAYLOR game @ Baylor 2019.  Once they convinced me they weren't me mates pulling my leg,  I jumped at chance.

They said the only hinge for the project was they needed to 'pay by square'.  Less than two hours later I was a square user and billing ESPN's production manager. 

[mysticcoffee]

I got on a long time ago when there were no swipe fees. I had a coffee shop, and as another mentioned, I had a lot of $2 (and even less than $2) transactions and the swipe fees were killing me. Not to mention the traditional processor I had previously had so many mystery charges that couldn't be traced back to any transaction due to the type promotion that might have been on the customer's card like air miles or what have you. It was a nightmare. I was paying almost twice in fees vs. what I ended up paying for Square. If I hadn't found Square I would have been out of business in not too much more time. It was hard when Square added the swipe fee and increased the percentage. I had to raise my prices a few times to catch up. Now, after Covid I've changed my business to online-only and instead of selling coffee by the cup + food, I'm only selling bagged coffee - beans or ground. Everything is either shipped or dropped off at one of my retail partners for customer pickup. The online functionality was very helpful at first. Now I'm finding the web tools aren't terribly flexible (Weebly is really awful) and I hate my web site to be honest. And the extra charges Square adds on for my drop-off/pick-up locations are rather expensive. I'm looking around for another platform with better design tools, more themes, etc. I may stick with Square payments but it all depends on how easily it integrates with whatever else I find and associated costs. 

[chefsian]

Square is truly as close to a one stop shop as you can get. Sure, there are a few little annoyances but I've come a long way since ecommerce plugins and clunky cash registers. The fact that Square offer so many direct integrations with other necessary services like Intuit and 3rd party delivery apps is a HUGE plus.

[ATurfSnowPlowin]

My friends recommended Square

[aliasboots]

We choose Square because of its compatibility with new and legacy apps, its portability, and having no swipe fees, 

[tcakes707]

They say you don't know what you have until its gone.  I recently incorporated my business and after running as a solo prop for 4 years.  I realized I was not allowed to use my square account and would have to start a new one.   this gave me the opportunity to try out the competition.  The grass was not greener! Within one month I was back to setting up my new account with square.   I'd have to says that the constant improvements to the soft ware and easy to use platform are unmatched.  The ability to simply send a client a checkout link via text is a game changer.  I would only say please bring back the ability to add tips to check out links that don't have a fixed payment amount.    see link   https://checkout.square.site/merchant/MLNTJ3VFD8879/checkout/H2VGUXPS2BAU4ELBCAXDLPHR 

[Instyl]

I had bad experiences with merchant platforms: hidden fees, hardware, batching out...etc.  Then Square came around and I took a chance.  All my colleagues were skeptical until Starbucks started utilizing Square then it was all good from there. 

I love the company and it only gets better with all the options that you have to allow me to run my business efficiently and smoothly.

[VintageDress]

The ease of integration between the web site and instagram.

[ReverendMike]

Overall, Square has proved to be the best solution for my Brick & Mortar business. I like that they take their fees instantly and that I don't get surprised at the beginning of each month. I mostly stay with Square because my customers really like the point of purchase experience the best of any system I've tried.

What I dislike the most is that Square won't allow me to sell my products (traditional tobacco) online. This issue may force me to change providers, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. After 6-plus years, I wish Square would take a second look at my ability to take non card present tobacco transactions.

[JudoUnlimited]

Ease of use.

I can change bank accounts, customer information and pull up data. elavon does not.

[Jsigns513]

Ease of setup and integration with our management software for our sign business. We manufacture LED signs and digital reader boards for Schools and other businesses so our charges become quite large. However its worth the convenience the manage everything in one place. 

[DinaLRosenberg]

When we opened up 3 years ago we checked out square and clover as we were primarily interested in the point of sale system. We fell in love with their register and are so happy we went with square. Like others commented I also owned a store from 2010-2015 and remember the days of crazy processing fees with nebulous monthly statements with every changing costs. Forget about finding next day funding! and Amex took DAYS to get!

Aside from ease of rate we have integrated so many square services. To date we use:

square for retail

appointments

payroll

loyalty

marketing (email and text)

ecommerce

IMO there is no better reports out there- square even built us a few custom reports so we can see how our different sales channels perform (store vs e-commerce vs social selling) 

I love being able to send an email or text and get sales figures.

I love seeing average transactions and number of sales per month/day/year

Most everything we've used with square is super intuitive to use. We recommend square to any business people that ask- that's how much of a fan we are.

[ervinhelmuth]

We chose Square because of hardware. It's still a bit weak when it comes to enterprise integrations for large companies. But their hardware is good enough that we're willing to do some workarounds for that.

[Candlestore]

I bought a business that the previous owner had Clover and was downsizing the business since he wanted to retire...(hours were only internet sales and 8 hrs a weekend)  He chose Square for doing this and just used it for CC processing.  When I bought the business, I went with Square from his recommendations.  Over the course of 2.5 yrs I have been installing the inventory, and updating the hardware from a cell phone, to a tablet and now to a Square Stand.   While using Square and having sales grow I have been approached by other processors, but that is all they want to do.  Then the high prices of new hardware etc is just not worth the hassle.    Square is a package, that works good.  The processing and the inventory tracking works great for me, but the accounting and reporting gets a little tough.  Then again this is NOT an accounting software.  I learned with QuickBooks POS, yes it does integrate with Quickbooks 100% but the initial out lay of a register (computer) and other items to work the POS are expensive (complete roughly $2000 or more).  Square on the other hand can be from about $500 - $1400 for a complete POS/Inventory system ( Terminal - Register).  I do not regret my choice to stay with Square and hopefully soon I will be processing enough to get better rates.   I keep finding new work arounds that let Square and my website (not through Square) be fully compatible with my accounting software.

I am really happy with the information I am able to see about my business as long as I have Internet (cell, computer, tablet etc)  Some people have said they need better reports, since I am new to owning a business I am really happy with the reports I get from Square and the ability to export information as a csv to import it to other software that can make better reports.  Again we need to realize that Square is a CC processor with added features of a easy to use POS which in this aspect Square does very well for me.

[Svirid_off]

I like the ease of use and simple pricing structure. Seems like the fees are staying consistent and what I see across other platforms - any kind of swipe card transactions are cheaper than competitors. No difference in on-line transactions is also good - they are not trying to make up the difference. Integration with online tool could be better for other then card payments - like inventory sync with WooCommerce has a lot to improve. 

Like to use their debit card as well. Very convenient. 

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Alexander S.

Good Bloke Soap Co.

Think Sustainable

[Walt4]

Choosing Square over the others was an easy choice. While searching for processing providers, every company started their sales pitch off with how bad Square was for CBD merchants like myself. Every single one. I said to myself if you are better than Square why not tell me about your product instead of bad mouthing a competitor. The second thing I thought about was that if people hate you, then you must be doing something right. Think of all the sports GOATS; Ali, Jordan, Tyson, Bryant, Ruth, Brady(gag) etc etc. These exceptional people are/were hated by droves for simply being the best. I love Square.