Square For Retail Review

Pros

• Flat-rate pricing
• Multilocation inventory management
• Purchase order management
• eCommerce integration
• Advanced employee management

Cons

• Limited features
• Account stability issues

Overview

Square is a point of sale system that has features designed specifically for retail stores. It has a free version of its service and additional tiers for larger businesses. Because of Square’s low-cost entry point and its incredibly user-friendly interface, we have it rated as one of our very best POS systems for small businesses.

Square For Retail Pricing

Square has recently updated its pricing model to three tiers. Retail features are available on all tiers, although paid options get more advanced features and lower processing fees. Rates in the table are for in-person transactions. Online transactions cost 2.9% - 3.3% + $0.30, with the lowest rates available on paid plans.

If you want to know more about how much Square charges, or get more detailed info on Square in general, read our full Square review.

There are no commitments or long-term contracts required. Paid plans offer users the company’s standard 30-day free trial, but you should note that payment processing fees still apply.

Square POS Extra Costs & Fees

Square For Retail Is Best Suited For…

• Small to mid-sized businesses looking for an intuitive POS system
• Retail businesses that may be looking to scale up in the near future
• Businesses who want an affordable POS with industry-specific features

Square For Retail Features

Square’s retail features vary based on whether you’re on a free plan or paid plan.

Square Plus Features

The free version of the app has many of the same features as the paid plan, but it has some limitations. For example, on the free plan, you can issue refunds, but not exchanges. The following features are only available on the Plus plan.

• Manage item costs
• Print item labels
• Issue exchanges
• Manage staff
• Set different permissions for different users
• Transfer inventory to a different location
• Create and send purchase orders
• Manage vendors
• Manage pending restocks
• Advanced reporting (COGS reports, vendor sales reports, inventory by category reports, labor vs. sales reports)

Square Premium Features

The following features are only available on the Premium plan:

• Transfer orders
• Cross-location returns & fulfillment
• Import purchase orders
• Vendor sales reports
• Real-time shipping rates

Square For Retail Inventory

Square’s inventory tools include:

• Add and manage items with descriptions and variants
• Product matrix
• Low stock and out of stock alerts
• Receive inventory
• Transfer inventory to a different location (paid plans only)
• Search inventory across locations
• In-depth inventory reporting, including COGS and projected profits (paid plans only)
• Unlimited SKUs
• Barcode and custom label printing (paid plans only)
• CSV import and bulk editing
• Unit cost in item listings (paid plans only)

Square For Retail Vendor & Purchase Order Management

Square’s vendor management and purchase order management features are available on paid plans only. These functions are an extension of Square for Retail’s inventory management, but it seems these are the features merchants are most interested in, so I want to call them out:

• Link Vendors To Products In Item Catalog: This feature is a good complement to the unit cost function.
• Purchase Order Creation: You can create purchase orders from the Square dashboard. However, at this time, Retail cannot auto-populate purchase orders based on low or empty stock, which is a sore point. Instead, merchants have to select each item on the purchase order manually.
• Purchase Order Management: You can receive purchase orders from the dashboard or within the Square Retail app and check the status (whether something is partially received, still waiting, etc.). When you receive items, you can also mark any taxes and fees for accurate cost-of-goods (COG) reporting.

Square For Retail Back-End Features

Square has a long list of back-end features, but these are the highlights:

• Free Online Store: Square’s free online store is really basic, but it works. It’s simple to set up, plus you can integrate with other third-party shopping carts (though not all reporting features work seamlessly). Square even allows you to accept orders online to pick up in-store, which is worth looking at.
• Square Online Checkout: Customers can check out using a link you text them, a button embedded into your existing website, a link on your social media profile, or a QR code they scan with their phone’s camera.
• Square Virtual Terminal: With Square’s Virtual Terminal, you can accept payments through any web browser by manually keying in credit card information. Just like all other keyed-in transactions taken through Square, using the virtual terminal will cost 3.5% + $0.15 per transaction and take one to two business days to process.
• Add Inventory: Hit “Add Stock” in the dashboard and search or scan the product you’re adding.
• Item View: You can manage inventory across multiple locations from your Square dashboard. (You can also control employee permissions in the same way.)
• Client Messages: Customers can make an appointment and leave information in the form of a comment or note, saving employees a few steps.
• Invoicing: You can send invoices through the Square dashboard. Invoices are customizable, and you can even keep customers’ cards on file.
• Refund To Gift Card: It’s not quite the same as a store credit, but Square will finally let you refund a transaction to a gift card, giving you a more effective way to handle exchanges and store credit. It’s not perfect by any means, but at least it’s something.
• Cash Management: Track the starting and ending balances of drawers, pay-ins and pay-outs, and more.
• Decimal Quantities: Another initial hole with Square’s Retail POS has been fixed with an update, as you now have decimal quantity support.
• Advanced Reports (Paid Plans Only): The Square Retail reporting suite lets you view the costs of goods sold and track projected profits. You can also see your inventory history, monitor employee sales, and track inventory by vendor or category.
• Favorites: This feature allows you to create a list of popular items, or items you want to keep close on hand, that you can access from the app interface — no need to search for individual products.
• Customer Directory: Add information and notes on customers in the directory.
• Custom Tips & Discounts: These aren’t Retail-exclusive features, but I want to point out that the app supports tipping. I’ve encountered some merchants who sell a combination of services and retail goods that have expressed interest in the app. Unfortunately, many of them are frustrated by the inventory management tools, which don’t seem adequately adapted for a hybrid business. But this does exist if you need it.
• Loyalty (Paid Add-on): With Square Loyalty, business owners can customize their rewards program to attract and reward customers. Business owners can choose their rewards, such as a 10% discount on the tenth visit, and customers can redeem them by entering their phone numbers. You can also track redemption, participation, and sales rates with this program. Using your customer’s phone number, you can pull up all their information.
• Marketing Campaigns: Use an email or Facebook campaign to promote your merchandise to customers. Schedule campaigns and also track effectiveness with information, such as how many of your emails were opened and how many sales can be attributed to the email through a coupon code. You’ll need to commit to maintaining your customer database to get the most out of this feature.
• Payroll (Paid Add-on): With Square Payroll, it’s easy for merchants to transfer the timekeeping provided for free with the Retail app. Payroll is now available in all 50 states.
• Gift Cards: You can order physical gift cards, including templates and custom designs, for a fee. You can also sell eGift cards and just pay the transaction fees. It’s a great option for a lot of businesses. Best of all, there is no additional cost to use gift cards with Square.

Square also offers an extensive list of integrations in the App Marketplace. It doesn’t appear that all of them work seamlessly with the Retail app, so you’ll have to check with Square before committing.

One final thing to note: Square also offers developer APIs to create custom integrations and solutions. You need to make a Square account to access the APIs, but that’s all that’s required.

Ease Of Use

Simplicity is the name of the game with Square. There are limited customization options, but we give Square high marks because its front and back ends are clean and intuitive, and learning how to work the system should be a quick and easy process for new employees. You can also be up and running and ready to sell in a matter of minutes.

Customer Service & Support

Square offers a few options when it comes to customer support. Users can check out the customer support page to start their troubleshooting process. Then you just need to decide which avenue to pursue to get support.

• Phone Support: One of the bigger benefits of upgrading to Square’s Premium plan is you get access to its 24/7 phone support, something that isn’t offered in the free plan. The free plan has limited hours and is only available for the first 90 days.
• Email Support: Square’s email support is a ticket-based system where you fill out some information about your problem and then wait for someone from Square to email you. Square’s website says representatives will try to contact you within 24 hours.
• Knowledgebase: Square’s extensive knowledgebase should help you with any common questions or problems. It is an industry-leading solution in terms of the breadth of articles and topics. However, Square is still developing support articles for the Retail app, so there are many more resources regarding Square Point of Sale.
• Community Forum: Square offers a community page where users can troubleshoot and discuss Square. Unlike many other online communities, this one is quite active, both for merchants and Square support reps (and even product managers). If the knowledgebase doesn’t cover the issue and the problem isn’t pressing, this is your best chance at an answer.
• Social Media: You can follow Square on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. Along with posting blogs and product updates, Square also uses Facebook and Twitter to help customers in lieu of instant messaging on Square’s main website.
• Blog: Square maintains an active blog called Town Square. It’s also a terrific way to learn how to use Square’s features better or learn more about running a business. The monthly recaps are an easy way to catch up on new features.

Square seems to provide pretty good customer service — except in cases of account terminations. But I don’t think there’s any way to guide merchants through the account termination process to their satisfaction, either.

Payment Processing With Square For Retail

Square is only compatible with Square Payments for credit card processing. Square uses flat-rate pricing and offers discounted rates for paid plan subscribers. These rates are excellent for low-volume and small tickets, but larger retailers can likely get a better deal using a merchant account that offers interchange-plus pricing. However, if you’re new to processing and want to get set up quickly with minimal fuss, Square is the obvious choice.

It’s important to note that Square is a third-party payment processor, meaning merchants do not get their own merchant account, and account stability can be an issue. Withheld funds and even sudden account termination are not uncommon with third-party processors, including Square. It helps if you run a low-risk business (e.g., not a vape shop), and your ticket size doesn’t vary too much.

User Reviews

Negative Square For Retail Reviews & Complaints

• Missing Features: A lot of users have stated that they wished Square offered more features and functions. While Square continues to add updates almost monthly, this is still a common refrain.
• Unattractive User Interface: While I wouldn’t call the interface ugly, it could probably use a makeover, and other merchants seem to agree. There are also a few complaints that the Retail app interface isn’t friendly for very bright light (in the off chance you want to take the iPad mobile). Merchants would love the ability to toggle displays for different lighting conditions.

Positive Square For Retail Reviews

• Ease Of Use: Many users comment that the Square POS is easy to use and train new employees on. Considering that others have complained about the interface, I’m inclined to think this is more a case of people either loving it or hating it.
• Customer Support: Quite a few comments noted that Square’s customer service is friendly and helpful. I’ve seen this in action on the Seller Community, and it gets brought up in other public spaces. Remember, there’s no separate customer support for the Retail app versus the rest of Square’s services.
• Features: Square’s Retail app incorporates some features that merchants have been asking about for ages. Specifically, cost-of-goods reporting and more advanced inventory tracking are tools that Square users have desperately wanted. And despite the lack of some features and the pared-down UI, Retail is a step in the right direction.

Square For Retail Alternatives

Square For Retail VS Lightspeed Retail

Square For Retail is a similar product to Lightspeed Retail, but with some key differences. Square For Retail is a cheaper option with its free plan and almost identical processing fees. Both products are incredibly easy to use, but Square is probably best for brand-new business owners with very little previous point of sale experience. Square also has intuitive, proprietary hardware that sets it apart from Lightspeed.

If you’re a slightly larger business or one with multiple locations, Lightspeed Retail might be worth the extra money. Lightspeed offers more advanced features set particularly when it comes to inventory and reporting. It’s also a strong option for certain specialty industries.

Square For Retail VS Clover

Square and Clover are both strong point of sale systems that thrive on how easy they are to use. The software for both is extremely affordable. As mentioned, Square’s basic feature set is solid but fairly basic, while Clover is highly customizable, allowing you to download apps to set up your system however you want.

Square and Clover both have strong hardware options that function similarly, but Square’s is cheaper.

Clover also has issues when customers purchase their products from third-party vendors, as they can get locked into long-term contracts. However, if you go through a certified Clover retailer, the software is excellent, with terrific reporting and a strong offline mode.

Final Verdict Of Square For Retail

With the Square POS system for retail, Square has left itself room to grow and improve, and the majority of its many updates have been positive thus far. Very small merchants with little inventory stand to benefit from switching from the standard Square POS, while very large businesses may find the Square for Retail feature set lacking. This means the Square Retail system is one of the best free POS systems for merchants who fall in just the right range — a small but growing business or a mid-size business with somewhat basic/standard retail needs.

Square continues to make things easy by offering all-in-one solutions, even if they come with higher rates than you could find elsewhere. If you’re unsure whether to use the Free or paid plans, try Plus or Premium for free for 30 days to see if Square is right for your business.

The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆

Square For Retail	Visit Site

After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see Square For Retail for yourself.

The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆

Square For Retail	Visit Site

After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see Square For Retail for yourself.