Zettle By PayPal

Zettle’s mobile app, formerly known as Zettle Go but now called PayPal Zettle: Point Of Sale, offers some noteworthy features, including:

• Inventory Library: You can organize items into folders and include different variants (such as small, medium, and large) for each item and upload photos of products to serve as icons. Bulk import and export via Excel to speed things up.
• Discounts: You can issue discounts by a percentage or a fixed amount.
• Text Payments: This feature, useful for socially distant and remote payments that don’t necessarily involve your website — for example, taking an order over the phone — lets you text customers a link prompting them to pay on their device.
• In-Person PayPal Payments: Select “PayPal” as the payment method during checkout, and the app will display a QR code that your customer can scan to pay with the PayPal app on their phone.
• In-App Invoicing: Send an invoice for 2.5% of the transaction.
• VAT: Business accounts can set VAT rates for items.
• Analytics: Zettle’s analytics are pretty standard stuff, but it covers all the important data — card and cash sales, plus the items and quantities sold, for starters.
• Order Tickets: Print up receipts as well as tickets for the kitchen.
• Multiple Staff Accounts: Each staff member will have their own unique login information, and they do not have access to reports or sensitive account info. This is a nice feature and is available at no extra charge.
• Gratuity: Zettle now has a tipping function, so your customers can add an extra amount right at the reader. Tips are included in sales reports and receipts. If you’ve got an older Zettle card reader, make sure it’s updated with the latest software for the tipping screen.
• Customer Database: When customers enter their email addresses for receipts, Zettle stores them. You can then import that list into an email service, such as Mailchimp.
• Gift Cards: You can sell gift cards to your customers in two ways. You can order plastic gift cards or deliver gift codes through email with seamless gift card bookkeeping.

One absent feature is eCommerce. Zettle used to have an in-house eCommerce add-on but now recommends that customers who want eCommerce integrate with BigCommerce. Users of Shopify and other supported shopping cart software can also integrate Zettle into their existing store.

The app also lacks an offline mode; you’ll need a data or Wi-Fi connection to process payments.

Accept contactless NFC payments with just the Zettle by PayPal app and your iPhone or Android. If you use this solution, you won’t need to purchase any Zettle hardware (though you won’t be able to accept chip cards). Learn more about this technology in our blog post on Tap to Pay for merchants.

Zettle’s latest card reader is the Zettle Reader 2, which supports chip cards and contactless NFC payments. This Bluetooth reader works on all Apple devices running iOS 10 and higher and most Android devices running Android 5.0 and higher.

Here are the stats on the Zettle card reader:

• Low-energy Bluetooth connectivity supports an eight-hour battery life
• It takes card payments 25% faster than other mobile card readers (according to Zettle) and processes contactless payments in just five seconds
• PIN pad to accept PIN card and debit card transactions
• Accepts all major credit cards and digital wallets, including Apple Pay, Samsung, Google Pay, PayPal QR payments, and payment links, with five-second processing speeds
• Deposits withdrawals to your bank account in one to two business days
• 12-month warranty on all card readers
• Optional charging dock for countertop use
• Two color options (white and black)

Compared to similar mobile processing readers, the Zettle card reader offers great value, is competitively priced, and because of the updates, offers merchants better protection from fraud overall. About the only thing it lacks is magstripe capabilities, but this is becoming less of an issue with time as consumers and merchants leave magstripe technology behind.

PayPal’s new standalone POS solution, the Zettle Terminal, is now available in the UK. This touchscreen terminal runs the Zettle app and does not need to be paired with any other device. It comes with a preloaded SIM card for immediate connectivity — the device runs on either Wi-Fi or 4G but requires a Wi-Fi connection during the initial setup.

Here are the Zettle Terminal’s specifications:

• Battery life with “average” use is about 12 hours, while battery life with “intensive” use is about four to six hours
• PIN pad functionality to accept PIN card and debit card transactions
• Accepts all major credit cards and digital wallets, including Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Pay, PayPal QR payments, and payment links, with five-second processing speeds
• Deposits withdrawals to your bank account in one to two business days
• 12-month warranty on all card readers
• Optional Printer & Dock  for countertop charging and receipt printing
• You can now get the Zettle Terminal with a barcode scanner

• Restaurant & Retail POS: Businesses that need more industry specific features can still use Zettle for processing while integrating with a restaurant- or retail-specific POS. Zettle partners with various restaurant POS systems such as Lightspeed Restaurant, Tabology, and EPOS Now, as well as retail systems like Loyverse, Lightspeed Retail, Hike, and SalesVu.
• Other Software Integrations: In addition to POS systems, Zettle integrates other popular business software, such as QuickBooks, Xero, Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Prestashop, and others.

Zettle doesn’t have a huge number of complaints floating around, which is a very good sign. However, I did find some out there. These were the most common complaints in Zettle reviews:

• Connectivity Issues: This is a fairly common complaint against ANY mPOS service that favors iOS over Android and is by far the most common thread in recent complaints. The Android ecosystem is so fractured that it’s difficult to support every device, and glitches can happen. Related to this, some Android users have complained about their card readers failing after app updates.
• Sudden Account Terminations/Suspensions: Almost all services that provide fast, easy access to payment processing have complaints of early account instability. That’s because companies such as Zettle tend to approve accounts without substantive underwriting, leading them to abruptly cancel services if they later feel that an account is a higher risk than they’d like. It may also cause Zettle to suspend your account pending further verification and investigation. I have not seen many complaints about this against Zettle, but some are popping up. I suggest checking out section 2.2 of the Zettle terms for a list of prohibited business types (i.e., high-risk businesses), as falling into one of those banned categories will get you shut down pretty quickly.

Get Started with iZettle for the UK

Here are some common compliments customers have for Zettle across various review sites:

• Easy-To-Use App: Most positive reviews praise the app’s ease of use. Particularly for quick-serve and small mobile retail businesses, the app does everything business owners want it to do without being unnecessarily complicated.
• Quality Card Reader: Despite some Zettle reviews that describe connection problems with Android phones, a greater number of users praise how quickly and reliably the Zettle card reader connects. They also like that the reader has a good battery life and supports contactless payments. One Zettle card reader review stated that the battery life is sufficient to last her the entire weekend when she uses it for mobile payments at fairs and events.
• Fair Pricing: Most merchants seem to enjoy Zettle’s flat-rate pricing, which is lower than most other mobile processing services provide and better than what many traditional merchant account providers can offer low-volume businesses. And, of course, everyone likes that there is no monthly fee or cancellation fee — which means you can get the app and card reader just for occasional mobile use.
• Helpful Customer Service: Though there are some negative reviews of Zettle customer support, many Zettle merchants praise the quality of the company’s customer service and their ability to resolve problems.