Square for Retail

Avantages

How simple it is to set up. You know exactly how much you are being charged. There is no hidden extra add ons. Square updated the os, so now if your customer wants to return 1 item and they purchased two, you just pull up the item and hit return.

Inconvénients

Just make sure you do all the updates for square and os system for any pad you are using. We use an Ipad and it works great! Not much to not like.

Avantages

I like the ability to transfer inventory from one store to another. I like the ability to have employees clock-in/clock-out to keep track of pay and what items a specific employee sells. I like the ability to adjust quantities from the app instead of just the dashboard.

Inconvénients

I don't like that I can't view another store's inventory from the app. Very often, I find myself saying, "We don't have that in-stock here, but I know it's in-stock at our other location." It'd be very helpful to be able to type in an item and view quantity in-stock for all locations. I also HATE that there are not "tickets" available anymore. I own a music store that offers instrument repairs and we also have special orders. For instrument repairs - the amount is variable depending on what needs done and I also notate the transaction with the instrument type, brand, serial number - what parts were used, and what was done under the "Quantity and Notes" section. I don't want to have to look up that information and type into a transaction with the customer standing at the register. In the other app, I could do all of that when no one was in the store and save it as a ticket. Then when they come into the store, all I had to do was pull up the ticket and they were good to go. Same with special orders. I don't want to add inventory into Square, assign it a price, add the SKU, put it into a category, set the quantity, etc., if I'm not going to STOCK the item. So for special orders, I like to just type in the information under "Custom Amount," but I do like to notate the transaction under "Quantity and Notes" with the title and SKU so I can look back and see what it was. I don't want to do that typing when a customer arrives, so I prefer to save it as a ticket. Now I can't do that.

Avantages

The Square plugin was super easy to use and fit most devices. The application is simple and adjustments were easy to make changes to. Paperless receipts are the best way to go about transactions.

Inconvénients

The price was a little high for the software. Using the plugin had its disadvantages if you use a phone and that phone has a protective case. The application sometimes froze.

Avantages

Despite what I wrote in my "cons", this really is the best software I've found for card sales for my company. Most of them charge you a monthly fee in addition to a percentage of every sale, which thankfully is not the case with Square. It's very easy to use if you're not familiar with POS software. Customer service is also very easy to reach and quite friendly from my experience.

Inconvénients

Unfortunately, you have to buy their most expensive software to only have 2.4% taken out from every credit card purchase. Otherwise, you'll be charged more. I know that's just how POS systems are... but it's too bad we are charged a percentage of every purchase to simply use their product, given it's not their money. I also wish there were more customization features available. I just used Quickbooks (which is compatible with Square) instead of Square itself to do all the customizing so I also didn't have to put Square advertisements on all of our receipts, which doesn't look very professional.

Avantages

I really like how sleek, modern, and clean this method for receiving payment works. It has a very modern GUI, with large clear numbers and values as opposed to the majority of credit card readers that have much more pixelated appearances and significantly smaller font sizes in comparison. Also, the ease of the option of signing when required with a finger on a touchscreen device is better than the alternatives available today such as signing with a physical pen or a stylus for digital screens. These features save time at checkout which in turn increases efficiency, and as my time is very valuable to me, I greatly appreciate these factors that contribute to the ease of use.

Inconvénients

While there is not much to dislike, I have noticed that sometimes cards are not read as easily with this software at times. While this is perhaps more a function of the hardware used to swipe or scan credit or debit cards, I have noted a bit of a trend with this when using Square with certain cards while performing with other card types have been flawless. This makes me suspicious if it is related to a software issue. Otherwise, I have no complaints about Square.