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Business in a Box

squareup.com

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Re: Business in a Box

#71

Post by johncampbelljr »

mmanfrin wrote: post #49

Disclosure : I work for GoPago, a direct competitor in this market. I am approaching this with a lot of built-in bias. Square is pretty late to the game. Their software is pretty, but it has a much smaller featureset than every other tablet-based POS software out there (including our own competitors). Additionally, their prices do not include the cost of the iPad, which is another $500 on top of this 'business in a b…

But at this point I might bet on the company with masterful marketing. If there is going to be a de facto standard for SMB POS Square might be able to get there. If Clayton Christensen (Innovator Dilemma) taught me anything it's that feature gaps can be closed quickly. Marketing/Mindshare gaps, not so much.

Re: Business in a Box

#72

Post by [deleted] »

mmanfrin wrote: post #49

Disclosure : I work for GoPago, a direct competitor in this market. I am approaching this with a lot of built-in bias. Square is pretty late to the game. Their software is pretty, but it has a much smaller featureset than every other tablet-based POS software out there (including our own competitors). Additionally, their prices do not include the cost of the iPad, which is another $500 on top of this 'business in a b…

[deleted]

Re: Business in a Box

#73

Post by jgh »

notjustanymike wrote: post #63
mmanfrin wrote: post #49

Disclosure : I work for GoPago, a direct competitor in this market. I am approaching this with a lot of built-in bias. Square is pretty late to the game. Their software is pretty, but it has a much smaller featureset than every other tablet-based POS software out there (including our own competitors). Additionally, their prices do not include the cost of the iPad, which is another $500 on top of this 'business in a b…

I think you had a point on pricing until you explained GoPago's fees. Assuming a company uses the same system for 3 years, you're looking at $3,600 spent on a rental. Square and the separate iPad Retina purchase add up to a $1,100 one time fee. I can't debate you on features, but I would argue they're extremely competitive with pricing.

Except you also need some kind of wireless connection for that iPad, which is apparently included in the price of the GoPago package. So you'll have to either pay the $30/month for the iPad data plan or get some other form of high-speed internet for about the same price plus a router. This would bring the price up to $2180 over that same three year period. So it's still cheaper, but not as much as you suggested. If you're dealing with apparently inferior software (I don't know anything about this POS stuff) is that $1320 savings really worth it?

Re: Business in a Box

#74

Post by thoughtpalette »

obituary_latte wrote: post #68
freehunter wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dear noscript users: You chose to break the website. It was designed to be used the way it was written. Javascript is a basic part of the Internet. Their site won't work without HTML enabled either. Welcome to 1994, Everyone.

Ok. Lets hope those with accessibility issues (screen-readers, etc), people with constrained systems (old, corporate, etc), and whoever else might not be able or willing to use js can figure something out then. Oh, they have! They won't visit your site. Cool!

I get the accessibility point, but the html should still be screen readable with js turned off. Regardless, it depends on your target users. I'm not going to worry about js turned off for a interactive rich site OR a multitude of other use cases.

Re: Business in a Box

#75

Post by pc86 »

legutierr wrote: post #39
ForFreedom wrote: post #32

Why don't they just do away with the bulky cash register too.

Cash? There aren't many stores that are "credit card only". You'd be turning away customers.

Not to mention that it's illegal.

You cannot turn someone away who wants to pay with cash, that whole "legal tender" thing.

Re: Business in a Box

#76

Post by gmisra »

I own a small business and we have experimented with Square Register and other ipad-based POS systems. Register is by far the least feature rich of all of the offerings we looked at - this is not necessarily a bad thing. Specifically,

Cons

* Register is not designed for restaurant use - many of these reasons have already been discussed on this thread, the biggest being the lack of modifier support.

* Register does not support weight-based pricing (delis, produce, etc).

* Getting meaningful data out of Register is annoying

* There really isn't much tech support for Register - for a lot of businesses, being able to pay somebody to come set-up a POS and train the staff is a real feature.

* The card reader is unreliable - multiple swipes are often required. (A non-free, durable and reliable card reader would be a good thing for Square to consider offering). * No inventory management. (If there was a nice API, other people could solve this problem.)

Pros

* It provides a nicely unified experience across Register and Wallet, which makes enabling Wallet easy.

* Square is still our preferred payment processor for credit card transactions. I especially appreciate how they transfer money into our bank account within 24 hours instead of trying to justify why they should be allowed to hold on to it until the end of the month.

* It is the easiest to set-up and use, and to train employees to use.

In terms of the ipad POS space, none of them are really mature POS systems yet. If your transaction set is simple, or if you're willing to modify it to fit into the POS feature-set, then one of them is probably right for you. If you need Aloha-style customizability, you should wait. My guess is that different POS solutions will generate traction in different markets, and then it will become much clearer with solution is right for your business.

Personally, I think the old-style POS's are such a rip-off that figuring out how to make your small business work with a newer technology is worth it. Running a food business, however, I would not recommend Register. If I ran a business with a simpler item set (e.g. a clothing store), then I would seriously consider it.

Asides

* Yeah, those printers are like tanks. Two thumbs up!

* You definitely want physical security. The bundled stand includes the ability to secure against grab-and-go theft (http://hecklerdesign.com/windfall/).

(edit: formatting)

Re: Business in a Box

#77

Post by ahoyhere »

jgh wrote: post #73
notjustanymike wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you had a point on pricing until you explained GoPago's fees. Assuming a company uses the same system for 3 years, you're looking at $3,600 spent on a rental. Square and the separate iPad Retina purchase add up to a $1,100 one time fee. I can't debate you on features, but I would argue they're extremely competitive with pricing.

Except you also need some kind of wireless connection for that iPad, which is apparently included in the price of the GoPago package. So you'll have to either pay the $30/month for the iPad data plan or get some other form of high-speed internet for about the same price plus a router. This would bring the price up to $2180 over that same three year period. So it's still cheaper, but not as much as you suggested. If y…

You're assuming they don't already pay for connectivity for an existing system, which all existing stores with POS must. Which means the additional cost over what they're paying is probably $0 to switch, vs possibly having to cancel and sign up with something new. And many of the people who will use this probably already use regular Square.

Re: Business in a Box

#78

Post by twerquie »

obituary_latte wrote: post #68
freehunter wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dear noscript users: You chose to break the website. It was designed to be used the way it was written. Javascript is a basic part of the Internet. Their site won't work without HTML enabled either. Welcome to 1994, Everyone.

Ok. Lets hope those with accessibility issues (screen-readers, etc), people with constrained systems (old, corporate, etc), and whoever else might not be able or willing to use js can figure something out then. Oh, they have! They won't visit your site. Cool!

Screen readers have no problem reading javascript-rendered content. A corporate environment that disables javascript may as well block port 80 as well. I agree with others who point out that js is as vital as html and css to rendering a page.

Re: Business in a Box

#79

Post by freehunter »

obituary_latte wrote: post #68
freehunter wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dear noscript users: You chose to break the website. It was designed to be used the way it was written. Javascript is a basic part of the Internet. Their site won't work without HTML enabled either. Welcome to 1994, Everyone.

Ok. Lets hope those with accessibility issues (screen-readers, etc), people with constrained systems (old, corporate, etc), and whoever else might not be able or willing to use js can figure something out then. Oh, they have! They won't visit your site. Cool!

With 98% of screen reader users having Javascript enabled [1], I'm willing to bet it's not really an issue for them. I'm then left wondering who these people are that have daily-use systems so old that they cannot run Javascript in their browser, and why they are such an important market.

[1] http://webaim.org/projects/screenreadersurvey3/#javascript

Re: Business in a Box

#80

Post by lifeisstillgood »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #58
drfritznunkie wrote: post #23

I just helped a friend install a iPad POS at his coffee shop this past December using BreadCrumb. We looked at Square Register, but it's rather lackluster feature set ruled it out. Namely, it doesn't support multiple printers or printer queuing (ex. food items get sent to kitchen printer), it doesn't have a modifier system for items (maybe this has changed), and no employee features (clock-in/out) etc.. I would say i…

* Every empty space inside the printers was chock full of roach bodies. The circuit boards were caked with roach shit and all the feed mechanisms had ingested and ground up the roaches that got in their way. And ever single one of these printers still works flawlessly.* Now that's a product I'd be proud to say I designed. Seriously, that's the kind of bulletproof performance I aspire towards.

I would never buy such a buggy product

:-)

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