Square: Making Money Magical

The payments space is heating up, it seems every big company, along with a host of startups wants to become an extension of your wallet, or eliminate it entirely. At this point the company best positioned to disrupt, and revolutionize the payments space, in my opinion is Jack Dorsey’s Square. Everyday financial transactions are still stuck in the past, on systems that were built on limitations that no longer exist with today’s newest technology. The idea of merchants having to set up large, and expensive POS systems in order to accept credit cards, and consumers being forced to always carry a wallet filled with cards, and cash now seems archaic, and backwards. As smartphone adoption continues to rise at a rapid rate, and we are all essentially carrying very powerful handheld computers in our pockets, it only makes sense that our phones allow us the ability to send, and receive money. I want to explore how Square is bringing financial transactions into the future.
Accepting payments anywhere, anytime, anyway. No longer does a person have to go through the long process of signing up for a POS system, and being chained to it in order to accept non-cash payments. The Square Card Reader now allows anyone with an Android, or iOS device to quickly sign up, and become a merchant in minutes. Let’s think about the enormous impact of this new ability, now there is even less friction than ever before to starting your own business. Lawyers, contractors, tutors, street vendors, food trucks, and countless other professionals now have the ability to give consumers multiple options to pay them for their services, consequently increasing their revenues. The card reader was Square’s first step into the payments space, but I think it is only a small part of its vision to revolutionize the payments space.
Square Card Case, now updated and renamed Pay With Square is Square’s first step in trying to replace your wallet, with your mobile phone. The app allows you to discover businesses that accept Square, and sync your credit card with the app. Once you visit a business, you simply order, and provide your name at the register. Your picture and your name will be on the register so the cashier can complete the purchase. You don’t even need to pull out your mobile phone, magic! No fumbling through a purse or wallet, making change for a cash purchase, or signing a receipt, and receiving a copy that you will stuff back into your wallet, or throw out. Think how much time is saved with each transaction. Time saved allows more time to serve customers.
Square Register allows any business to create a custom tailored register for itself, by simply using an iPad. It can let you upload, and change your inventory in a matter of minutes; this is especially attractive for businesses that have constantly changing offerings. If you are using Square Register, you will appear as a business that accept Pay With Square, thus allowing potentially new customers to discover your business, it is essentially free advertising. The Square Register also gives a merchant tremendous access to data that was not easily accessible with other POS terminals. A merchant can explore the data to find out what times are the busiest, and adjust staffing accordingly. Find out what days are not performing well, and maybe implement specials, or not be fully staffed on those days. It can also give the merchant information on what is selling best, and what is not as popular, so inventory purchasing decisions can be made more efficiently, to be more in line with customer demand. The Square Register can also help business owners identify, and reward their loyal customers, by making it clear who is spending what, and how often they are visiting an establishment. The data available to merchants through Square allows them to operate their businesses more efficiently than ever before.
The Square Card Reader, Pay With Square, and Square Register are all products that other companies can, and are trying to replicate, so what sets Square apart? I think it is a company that is changing payments by focusing on interactions rather than transactions. Square appears to view every interaction as an opportunity for merchants to build a relationship with their customers, rather than simply exchanging money for goods and services. Business owners are in a better position than ever before to serve their consumers effectively, and efficiently. The relationships they build with customers through interactions, allows them to learn more about what their customers want. Every size business today needs to be more data driven in order to inform their decision-making. Loyalty, and analytics aspects of the Square Register can help every size business leverage the data from their customers.
In order to win in any space, it is critical for any company to win over the hearts, and minds of “the normals”. “The normals” are the everyday users, not the early adopters in the tech community, and people who love to try out the newest app, or gadget. “The normals” are after all the majority of the world, so in order to have a meaningful business, of a serious size, it is important to have “the normals” on board with your product. I think this is where Square has a tremendous advantage over its competitors. Square’s focus on design, the user experience, and making every interaction delightful sets it apart from the competition. People who have done something as critical as spending/receiving money one way for so many years, will understandably be hesitant about trying something new. It is the job of the new product to be so easy to use, and intuitive in every function, that after using it for the first time, the new user will feel that the old way of doing things was in fact broken. I will be watching Square closely, and am excited to see how they will continue to make every transaction feel like a magical interaction.
- @KunalTandon