And where does it print the receipt? An emailed copy is not good enough, in fact it's far more inconvenient.
Introducing the Square Stand
31–40 of 64 posts
Re: Introducing the Square Stand
#32Re: Introducing the Square Stand
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most cards in the US don't have a chip.
Why is this? If everyone else is using it to the degree that swiping is (quoted from another post) "ancient history", then why is the U.S. so behind? I don't live in a big city, but I travel a fair amount across the U.S. I have never seen a chip reader.
Consumer paranoia (many claim chips/RFID is unsafe) in addition to outfitting millions of retailers. Chip readers is where Square should be, IMO.
Re: Introducing the Square Stand
#34What an absolutely brilliant & simple move by Square. POS register systems are a huge, costly market and this is an incredibly attractive option, esp at that price - talk about disruption! Nice job guys!
Groupon already does this and cheaper
http://breadcrumb.groupon.com/
Re: Introducing the Square Stand
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most cards in the US don't have a chip.
Why is this? If everyone else is using it to the degree that swiping is (quoted from another post) "ancient history", then why is the U.S. so behind? I don't live in a big city, but I travel a fair amount across the U.S. I have never seen a chip reader.
It was forced in Europe and Canada by shifting liability for fraud on swipe transactions to the merchant. Chips are very effective at preventing point-of-sale fraud. Mastercard and Visa had not tried to push it in the US, but they are getting more active now. As of this year, their processors are required to support chip transactions. By 2015 they will start shifting liability for certain transactions to the merchant if a chip card isn't used.
Re: Introducing the Square Stand
#36And where does it print the receipt? An emailed copy is not good enough, in fact it's far more inconvenient.
I haven't needed a printed receipt in years, I use Xero so even paying in cash with Square and getting an emailed receipt is a bonus instead of having to remember those 30 seconds to take a photo of it on my phone and log the amount.
Re: Introducing the Square Stand
#37That white clean look is going to start looking disgusting once it gets use in the real world. I see them imitating apple's design aesthetic, but they really should have learned from the white macbook - because this is going to be worse. Cash registers are already always dirty, because there's high transaction volume there - it's literally the bottleneck. Now it's white and pretty looking, so it'll draw your eye, whi…
> requires every business who gets the square stand to give it a good clean daily
And this a bad thing? Cleanliness of retail stores especially food/beverage is quite a deciding factor for both new and returning customers I would imagine. To take you're point further though, which I think you may have implied, once a white macbook gets a scratch/stain, it's likely permanent and looks nasty. Let's hope they've chosen a resilient material for this stand atleast.
Re: Introducing the Square Stand
#38A stand? That's not what they need to go mass market. When I show people the square dongle on my phone, the first thing most people ask is... "OK, that's cool, but how can it accept cash"? If their communication is not really simple & clear about how they can be a "total" solution for a small business (which yes, must also take cash + CC's), then they will not get to mass market. Having more hardware (which is far ha…
>If their communication is not really simple & clear about how they can be a "total" solution for a small business (which yes, must also take cash + CC's), then they will not get to mass market.
I'm not sure exactly how much clearer they can be. Scroll down the linked page, and they have a nice picture showing the Square Stand with a cash box and a receipt printer. Yes, they are add-ons, but nothing wrong with that and they do make it a complete solution for cheaper than a normal POS system.
Re: Introducing the Square Stand
#39I'm not sure who this is for. Square originated as a simple way for individuals and very small businesses to take credit without a massive investment. Evidently, businesses also took interest in such a product. However, a $300 kiosk is probably out of the realm of possibility for many one-man operations. At the same time, the business demographic to which they are appealing with this (larger established businesses th…
A BUNCH of small businesses with physical storefronts I frequent locally already use an iPad or iPhone with square as their PoS.
They do this DESPITE the inconvenience of using the standard plug-in square reader. DESPITE the technological know-how and inconvenience needed to hook up a receipt printer (they will email receipt to you ONLY, some customers don't like this, too bad).
Despite all those downsides, they do it cause Square's 2.9% is less than they get charged from other processors; and a typical PoS system costs so much more and is STILL crappy. They do it despite the other inconveniences.
So this is part of Square recognizing that they are in fact a hair's breadth away from taking over the small business physical storefront PoS market too, they just need to smooth down a few more edges.
Re: Introducing the Square Stand
#40I don't really get it, are they only using the magnetic strip and not the chip on the card?
U.S. cards only have magnetic strips. It's possible there are some cards in the U.S. that have chips now, but point of sale systems don't generally use em, only the strip, yep.