Point of Sale: Using mobile phone to sell items

[saumaya]

Hey everyone

I'm Saumaya, Product Manager for Point of Sale. We're looking for insights into businesses that use a mobile phone to sell items. Does this sound like your business? We want to hear from you! 

Some questions to consider: 

1. Where do you sell the items? In a store/pop-up/market?

2. How many items do you have?

3. What issues do you commonly face while selling these items on your phone?

4. How can Square Point of Sale help you bridge the gap for these issues?

Thanks for your feedback! 

[VanKalkerFarms]

1. Where do you sell the items? In a store/pop-up/market?

We sell in both a retail store setting and at farmers markets.  most of the phone sales are at markets.  nearly iPad exclusive in Square stands in store.

2. How many items do you have?

100s to thousand+ items.  currently, we sell via phones with only like 5 main items and occasionally have to use the search to find the item we need.

3. What issues do you commonly face while selling these items on your phone? 

& 4. How can Square Point of Sale help you bridge the gap for these issues?

currently, we just use a broad "item" named after the location we are at for lump sum credit card payments at markets.  Ideally, we would love the ability to use the POS interface everywhere regardless of if it is a tablet so we can sell by the item easier.  The iPhone XS Max we use are very large screens, and while yes they are still smaller than an iPad mini they are big enough to use a scaled POS layout.  with the POS grid view finding and selling items is so much easier. 

The XS Max is 6.5 in with a resolution of 2688×1242 px and the iPad mini 4 is 7.9 in with a resolution of 2048×1536 px so they are quite close other than the taller skinner layout of the phone.  The layout would have to be changed due to the resolution of the screen.  many phones are now in this phablet size with the pixel and galaxy note also in these large ranges.

[dancingbear]

What I set up on  the comuter is not reflected on the phone. I have to set up everything twice. Really a hastlle and frustrating. So If I book something of sell something from the phone it may have the wrong price because it does not sync with my computer. The iPad stand transactions do match the computer setup. It is only the transactions on the phone or on the phone customer appointment app that do not match. Everything should be the same every where.

[A440SPS]

1.  I'm a piano tuner, so I sell services in the customer's home.

2.  22 items, two discounts, two variable items.

3.  Square POS has the strange behavior of clearing a sale in progress within seconds after letting the app go idle. I often have to wait for the customer to write a check before I can click Checkout and enter the check number.

4.  Please at least add a setting for the timeout delay. I know no other app that automatically clears data that's been entered.

P.S. It's very useful to be able to record all income in one spot: cash, check, credit, as well as invoices.

[FarmMom]

1. Where do you sell the items? In a store/pop-up/market?

We sell at farmer's markets, deliveries and directly from our farm.

2. How many items do you have?

Probably over 100?  We have our Items categorized, with some items having separate item choices within them.

3. What issues do you commonly face while selling these items on your phone?

The only big issue, but it's not really having to do with the phone, is not being able to enter a decimal quantity for our cuts of meat.  Almost all of our products are cuts of meat, with weights already on the package (so we don't need a scale!) .  But, since the app still does not have this ability to input a decimal quantity, all of the items sold by weight and price per pound must be Variable priced items.  This requires me, at the market for sales that aren't ordered ahead of time, to use either a separate calculator, or bounce back and forth to a calculator app..  This takes extra time, especially on large purchases, and leave a receipt that isn't very professional looking (compared to grocery stores, anyway).  I will NOT do the workarounds suggested!  Those are rediculous!

4. How can Square Point of Sale help you bridge the gap for these issues?  Update the app so the quanity can have at least a 2 place decimal point.  Actually, making the decimal adjustable (maybe so you could choose anywhere from 0-4 decimal place numbers?) should accomodate anyone that uses fractional/decmal pricing.  Then we could enter all the per pound prices for our items!  What a concept!  The app would do the calculation!  So a 4.25 lb chicken at $5.00/lb could just have 4.25 entered,  And the customer would have the weight into on their receipt, too!

We really need this, Saumayo!  We've been asking for this for years!  I know other businesses that have moved on to other POS's becasue of this issue!  I really don't want to move on, and really hope with is taken care of this year.  

Thanks,

Sally

[saumaya]

Thank you for the feedback @FarmMom . We are currently building decimal support in Point of Sale and will advertise in the Seller Community when the feature is ready for beta (soon!). 

[DeborahR]

Some questions to consider: 

1. Where do you sell the items? In a store/pop-up/market?

I have an office

2. How many items do you have? 

Only I service

3. What issues do you commonly face while selling these items on your phone?

One really bad glitch is if a card is declined then the customer on file doesn't clear. I also hate that card on file does not autopopulate phone or email so it's a manual entry every time. Since I do teleheath also I hate that I have extra fees for card on file. I get penalized for repeat long distance customers or using HSA/FSA cards that don't have chip.

4. How can Square Point of Sale help you bridge the gap for these issues?

Allow card on file to have same fee rate as dip or swipe. The argument of too much liability is invalid since all card on files require an email consent (love that feature)! Autopopulate. Period. Allow a clear all function that clears all. Allow same transaction category functions as computer.