Square

Square

Square is both a service and a physical device that allows users to use their mobile devices to swipe and read payment cards, allowing people to accept credit/debit card payments without the use of otherwise expensive and complicated equipment.

So what's the big deal? The world is moving towards the very small. Small businesses, small-batch producers...

In this current economy many aspiring entrepreneurs are taking advantage of cheap retail space to open their own, uniquely catered businesses. At the same time passionate individuals, forming communities thanks to various social networking technologies can get together to create and distribute specialty products.

In any case, what's important is this realization that individuals are beginning to take this step, creating what they want instead of letting larger, well established companies do it instead. This shift towards the personal, individual businesses has opened up new areas of opportunity as these new businesses owners look for new ways to make themselves accessible to customers without having to invest in complicated infrastructure. What Square does is give these individuals the power to bypass otherwise expensive dedicated equipment and access a world of consumers who increasingly carry card only.

The Square device works by plugging into any device with an audio jack and an internet connection. The device reads the credit card information and connects to the Square server. Receipts are all stored online to be accessed later and accounts can be made for return customers, allowing you to track who your return customers are, and offer rewards.

Scenario of use

John and Jadey are in their early 30's, living in Toronto. They are a young couple, fairly well connected to technology. They use social networking to keep in touch with their friends, they download music and movies off the internet and they use it to get their news and do their banking.

Beyond that, though, they wouldn't describe themselves as early adopters, or "geeks" in any way.

John and Jadey are both glassworkers. Glass is their passion, their purpose in life. Working out of small shop near the distillery, they create beautiful pieces, both functional and decorative. They've found over the recent years a growing increase in interest, more and more people are coming into their shop, to see and to buy their goods. They had a problem though. Most of their work was sold through galleries, and while they did sell out-of-shop, they could only accept cash payments. This was frustrating. It was too expensive, and it didn't make sense to buy the necessary equipment so a few customers a month could buy their pieces.

Then they found Square. With Square they found an easy, cheap way to accept payments. It works with their business, allows them to track and reward valued return customers, and most importantly is much more cheap and portable than traditional equipment. They can even accept credit cards at the Outdoor Show!

By adopting Square John and Jadey have made themselves much more accessible to their potential customers, it gave them the tools to feel like a real, legitimate business, selling their own products rather then having to deal with galleries and middlemen.