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Business in a Box

squareup.com

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Re: Business in a Box

#81

Post by notjustanymike »

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…

Assuming you have a stationary unit, which you would in this case, the odds of you not having a broadband connection with wireless are incredibly slim. Every business needs internet, for simple things from Spotify to traditional needs (Google docs, email, etc). In a situation like this, you would never rely on a Verizon dataplan alone to run your business. Speed and reliability would be a serious concern.

Even assuming you don't have wifi, it's highly likely that paying for your own dataplan is smarter than going through a third party. GoPago uses Verizon wireless, but does not indicate how much of your monthly fee goes towards it. Small businesses get by on the skin of their teeth, so $1,420 in savings is $1,420 you can spend on something far more important.

Re: Business in a Box

#82

Post by nathannecro »

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 am not affiliated with either company and my only experience with operating a physical storefront are restaurants.

That being said, after taking a quick look at the front-facing material on both sites, I have a question for you/GoPago: While the point you make about the initial cost being higher (about 1k with iPad) is valid, Square seems to run a pricing scheme where they charge a flat $275 per month and get rid of any extra cut they take.

Just based off some rough math, assuming the business processes $200k worth of transactions per year (about $550 per day, very reasonable) merchants will save about 2.5k per year if they use Square. For more slightly more successful businesses who process upwards of $500k-1m per year the delta grows even larger (upwards of $26k).

If the merchant runs a 1-man business which processes maybe $50k worth of transactions per year and uses Square's charge of 2.75% per swipe, he'll still be saving approx $300. And he'll own the hardware which inherently has resell value.

What specifically does GoPago offer over Square which is worth at least $300?

Re: Business in a Box

#83

Post by thinkcomp »

It's too bad that Square gets all the press when the tech community should really be spending (at least some of) its energy trying to defeat a law that makes it a federal crime to start a payments company that actually does change things.

See http://www.aarongreenspan.com/writing/essay.html?id=86

Re: Business in a Box

#84

Post by pbreit »

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…

Methinks someone is about to get steamrolled.

Re: Business in a Box

#86

Post by heywire »

pc86 wrote: post #75
legutierr wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That is a common misconception [0]

[0] http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/faqs/Currency/Pages/...

Re: Business in a Box

#87

Post by pbreit »

fijal wrote: post #52

I would honestly love to have a flag saying [US only, don't bother if you're not from there] on articles (like that one) EDIT: this is genuinely not a snarky comment, but this this company will likely go bankrupt before I could use it (for example paypal is not universally available, in SA you need to have an account with a specific bank)

I'll save the HN programmers some cycles: everything here is [US only].

Re: Business in a Box

#88

Post by obituary_latte »

freehunter wrote: post #79
obituary_latte wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

>I'm then left wondering...

Stop. Your mind is made up. You don't want or care if people without javascript can see your stuff - fair enough.

Re: Business in a Box

#89

Post by mmanfrin »

nathannecro wrote: post #82
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 am not affiliated with either company and my only experience with operating a physical storefront are restaurants. That being said, after taking a quick look at the front-facing material on both sites, I have a question for you/GoPago: While the point you make about the initial cost being higher (about 1k with iPad) is valid, Square seems to run a pricing scheme where they charge a flat $275 per month and get rid o…

Square's $275 plan is only for the first 250k; after that they charge a normal credit-card rate.

What's the value of GoPago over Square for that 50k merchant? Mobile Storefront -- which has been a fantastic discovery tool to connect consumers with merchants on GoPago. It allows people to place orders on their phone to the POS terminal itself, no phone-calls necessary. We also have a much more robust reporting suite, support for scanners, support for wireless chit printers (so merchants don't have to ferry order receipts to the kitchen), a modifier system (this is huge if you do any sort of volume -- on Square's software, you need to manually input modifiers and their prices every time you ring up an item with modifiers like condiments/toppings).

Also, the cost difference in Square's favor is not realized until the end of the first year. If you're starting a business, the outlay needed for Square is precious money that could go elsewhere in your organization.

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