The Freedom to Swipe
Small businesses everywhere are turning to The Square credit card reader for all of their credit card transactions. With the ease and flexibility of Square anyone can begin to accept credit cards for their transaction needs. Square brings the convenience of credit card transactions to small businesses without all the confusing rules and rates from other card swiping machines. All you need is a bank account, smart phone, or tablet and you are well on your way to growing your business with the convenience of credit card transactions.
In 2009 the co-owner of Twitter, Jack Dorsey created the Square credit card reader to help cut through the clutter and complexities of the credit card industry. Dorsey wanted to help small businesses simplify their lives and give them access to a cheaper alternative than the pricey competition. According to (Stevenson 2012) Square cuts through all the monthly fees and confusing rules of the traditional credit card swipe machines. Anyone who wants a Square can go online to the website and register for the product. Square then ships a unit out to the customer for no charge. As soon as you receive your Square you can plug it into the headphone jack on your smartphone and begin to accept transactions from Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover. It is so simple any business could benefit from using Square.
The Square credit card reader has forever changed small businesses. Everyone from piano instructors to yoga teachers is using Square. Food trucks, party magicians, and lawn care services can now accept credit card transactions because of the convenience of Square. The coffee mogul Starbucks has partnered with Square to use their credit card swipe technology in all of their stores nation-wide. Square enables anyone to easily begin accepting credit cards for transactions. With no start up fee and a simple 2.75% charge to the user, Square is a cheaper alternative to other major credit card swipe machines. According to Forbes Magazine credit card transactions are critical for small businesses equaling 66% of all transactions (Geron 2013). Square allows the merchant to lower prices and in turn allows the customer to see the savings right on the receipt. This creates a connection with the customer. Small businesses want people to know they have received a discount (Geron 2013). When the customer feels valued it creates repeat customers, which is the goal of any small business.
The convenience of Square is the real appeal to merchants. Anyone with a bank account can use Square. Square uses this direct link to the bank account and will deposit the money from transactions within twenty-four hours. Email confirmations update the user of all transactions. Merchants can use Square software to perform analytics and keep track of all sales records. This is beneficial to the merchant because they can create personalized information for each customer. Companies using Square can use this information to track sales data to see what hours of the day they are busiest and what products sell the most. According to the Washington Post (Ravindranath 2012) Square analytics helped a New Jersey bakery cut its costs by 30%. The bakery, Sweet Avenue, used the data from Square combined with Microsoft Excel to create sales patterns for the store for the whole year. Square also provides the customer with digital receipts that they can receive via text or email. This is a great feature for people who are taking steps to be more “green.”
A major concern for Square users is security. One of the services that the major credit card swipe machines provide for the customer is a quality of security that people have come to trust. Data encryption, security, and privacy is something that Square is going to have to