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Kimberly is a career writer and editor with more than 30 years' experience. She's a bankruptcy survivor, small business owner, and homeschool parent. In addition to writing for The Motley Fool, she offers content strategy to financial technology startups, owns and manages a 350-writer content agency, and offers pro-bono financial counseling.
Square for Retail is a retail point of sale (POS) system that provides features that small and expanding retail businesses need, including inventory management, eCommerce tools, and reporting capabilities. Here's what you can expect from Square for Retail.
Pricing Plans
Square for Retail offers a 30-day free trial, then you can either stay on the Free plan or upgrade to the Plus plan for $89/month per location. Businesses that process over $250k annually may be eligible for custom pricing with Square for Retail's Premium plan.
Square for Retail is a POS system for retail business owners. It helps businesses accept payments, track and manage inventory, and run eCommerce stores.
Square for Retail has helpful features that can help boost productivity (and increase profit) including inventory management, reporting, and POS tools.
Square for Retail's Dashboard is where you can see a snapshot of all of your retail business information in one place.
The dashboard makes it easy to manage inventory, access reports and transaction information, connect sales channels, and more. It includes a step-by-step setup guide, a features tour, and tutorial videos to shorten the learning curve.
Square for Retail's inventory feature allows you to receive, manage, and track inventory directly from your phone or desktop. Perhaps the utmost time-saver is the barcode scanning capabilities that enable you to quickly scan items to process incoming inventory as well as checkout orders. Square enables you to not just scan barcodes but also print and manage the barcode labels you're using to stay organized.
Square for Retail enables you to automatically add unlimited items to your catalog by searching for or scanning a barcode. You can also bulk import your entire catalog.
The free Photo Studio by Square app helps you take high-quality product photos. The app allows you to easily remove the background from photos and customize preset background styles.
The app also integrates with Instagram, so you can quickly import and edit your Instagram photos.
You can use your photos to sell products directly from the app by adding a payment link to the item in your online store, or you can add the photos to your Square item catalog.
The app is user-friendly; remove the background, add a photo to Square, or start selling with the click of a button.
Note that the Square Photo Studio is currently only available for iOS users.
You can enable alerts so that Square for Retail will warn you when stock is getting low. Stock can be synced across locations so that businesses with multiple locations know when it's time to reorder.
Gone are the days of having to physically count inventory to reconcile discrepancies. With Square for Retail's inventory counting tool, you can conduct inventory counts with your iPhone or iPad's camera or a compatible barcode scanner.
You can also set cycle counts (regular audits of a portion of your stock) to catch discrepancies. Square recommends running cycle counts once every 90 days for each item type.
Once you have conducted a full or cycle count, you can view your Inventory Variance Report, which shows actual vs. expected stock amounts.
The inventory counting tool is only available for iOS users on Plus and Premium plans and does not work with Square Stands or Terminals.
Square for Retail makes it easy to print barcode labels from your Dashboard or the Square Retail POS app. You can automatically generate SKU numbers (stock keeping units) if your items don't have them, and Square will alert you to missing information (such as price or SKU number) before printing the label.
Barcode label printing is only available on Plus and Premium plans, and the app can only be accessed from iOS devices or the Square Stand or Square Register.
Square for Retail connects with Square Online, Square's online store builder. Users can build an eCommerce store and start selling for free, or sign up for one of Square Online's paid plans for advanced features like custom domains, abandoned cart reminders, and the ability to accept payments via PayPal.
Square for Retail includes access to Square Online's website editor. With the editor, you can quickly create a customized online store to sell your products.
To get started with your eCommerce store, click the Online tab in the Dashboard, then click the Start your site button.
The online store builder is simple to use, and you can start selling as soon as your store is published. With the site preview function you can see what your site will look like from a mobile device.
Read more: The Top 10 E-Commerce Solutions for Small Businesses
One big perk for Square for Retail users is discounted UPS and USPS shipping. All plans offer discounts of up to 55% for shipping in the US.
Square for Retail connects with multiple sales channels, including:
Square for Retail is built to process in-store sales. Item lookup, barcode scanning, and payment processing are foundations of Square's in-store sales capabilities. Your purchase orders and inventory updates will be reflected in your system so you can maximize sales by always knowing what's on your shelves and in your warehouse.
Square payment tools manage exchanges and accept returns in an easy-to-use process. You can also automatically get a dashboard of details and notes to reference for any past customers. This makes it easier to build lasting relationships with customers by bringing up previous purchases, preferences, and other key customer details whenever they visit your store.
The more ways customers can pay, the better. With Square for Retail, customers can pay in person by tapping or swiping their cards, or via a chip reader. If you don't have hardware, customers with iPhones can use Apple's contactless payment option.
Square for Retail's invoicing feature allows you to send invoices via email or text message, schedule up to four payment reminders, and attach up to 10 files of up to 25 MB.
Users can pay via:
Square's payment processing capabilities include credit and debit cards, near field communications (NFC) payments like Apple Pay and Google Wallet, gift cards, and more. And Square's payment security standards comply with all PCI requirements so your customers' valuable information is fully encrypted on Square's servers. Square also enables you to process and track invoices.
You can turn on tipping or allow customers to save their payment info for future purchases.
Square invoices are free to send, but transaction fees apply.
If you save yourself as a contact, you can create and view a preview of your invoice before you send it to a customer.
While invoices are a good choice when you want to bill via email or for recurring payments, Square's Virtual Terminal enables you to instantly charge customers for phone or email orders.
The Virtual Terminal allows you to add tips, split payments, and add service charges.
You can accept payments using the Virtual Terminal by:
There are higher processing fees for manually entered transactions.
Square for Retail's reports help you gain insight into your company's performance so you can make profitable decisions.
Sales reports give you an overview of your sales trends. You can choose daily, weekly, or yearly sales statistics, and compare sales over custom time periods. Metrics include gross sales, net sales, and average total sales, and you can view data on either a bar or line graph.
The COGS report shows the total cost that your business has paid for a product. The report can include expenses such as taxes, shipping, and handling so you can get an idea of the true cost of each item.
The COGS report can show:
COGS reports are only available for users on the Plus and Premium plans.
Related: Top Tax Software for Small Businesses
The vendor sales report enables you to choose a date range and filter items sold within that period based on vendors. This report makes it easy to evaluate vendors' performance.
Vendor sales reports are included in the Plus and Premium plans.
The inventory sell-through report is a daily report that shows a comparison of the percentage of inventory you get from a vendor and the amount you've sold over a specific time frame. Your inventory turnover ratio can tell you each product's performance so you can decide whether to continue to stock and sell that item.
Items with a lower turnover ratio may need your attention. If you have an item with a sell-through rate that is over 100%, that means you have oversold your stock and your inventory is negative.
The inventory sell-through report is only available with the Plus and Premium plans.
Square for Retail's customer relationship management features enable you to collect customer information and provide customized marketing services based on their behavior.
With customer profiles, you can get customers' email addresses when they ask for a digital receipt, store payment methods, and create customer groups based on their activities.
Square offers the following marketing services as add-ons:
Square for Retail's staff management features include time tracking and scheduling capabilities via Square Shifts.
Square Shifts offers:
Square Shifts is limited to five team members for Free plan users.
Read more: Top Payroll Software for Small Businesses
Customers love how easy it is to use Square for Retail. Online reviewers praise the simplicity of its POS and reporting features and commend the tap-to-pay capability.
The Dashboard is intuitively designed and includes guidance to get you up and running fast, and Square's help articles provide a trove of information about its features, including setup and troubleshooting tips.
Square for Retail has three plans:
You can sign up for a 30-day free trial, then you can either stick with Square for Retail's Free plan or upgrade to the Plus plan for $89/month per location.
Businesses that process more than $250k per year can contact Square's Sales Team to check eligibility for Square for Retail Premium, Square's custom pricing for large enterprises.
The Free plan is best for businesses that are just getting started and includes the free Square Retail POS app, an eCommerce store, and basic inventory tools.
The Plus plan is well-suited for growing businesses that need more complex inventory management, the ability to print barcode labels, and access to advanced reporting.
The Premium plan is designed for businesses that bring in at least $250k/year and need a custom plan that can support their growth. It includes everything in the Plus plan, as well as professional website tools and one-on-one onboarding assistance.
| Free | Plus | Premium | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $0/month | $89/month per location | Custom pricing |
| Retail Point of Sale app | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Multiple sales channels | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Online store | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Returns and exchanges | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Purchase orders | ❌ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Inventory management | ❌ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Barcode label printing | ❌ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Vendor and COGS reports | ❌ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Customer accounts | Optional for Square Online Plus users | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Professional website tools | Optional for Square Online Plus users | Optional for Square Online Plus users | ✔️ |
Square for Retail offers the following add-ons:
Each plan -- even the Free plan -- requires you to pay processing fees on transactions. While Premium plan users can get custom processing rates, Free and Plus plan users must pay 2.9% plus $0.30 per online transaction and 3.5% plus $0.15 per manually entered transaction.
Plus plan users get a discount for in-person transactions: 2.5% plus $0.10 compared to Free plan users' 2.6% plus $0.10.
All plans are charged 6% plus $0.30 for Afterpay (short-term financing service) transactions.
Square for Retail gets great reviews on software consumer review site G2. However, customers say it's hard to get in touch with Square for Retail's customer service. When we attempted to contact Square for Retail via phone and chat, we were disappointed.
When users click the Contact button, a chat box opens. You can either talk to an AI chat assistant, or request to speak to customer support via chat, phone, or email.
Square for Retail's Contact Square Support page contradicts itself, stating that its phone number is “currently unavailable” directly above a statement that says support is available by phone 24 hours a day.
When we contacted customer support via chat they said that customer service via phone is only available during business hours, which are Monday - Friday, 6 a.m. - 6 p.m. PST.
When we tried to ask another question via the chat box, the AI assistant requested personal information (name, email address, and phone number) and then directed us to sign up for an account or contact the customer service phone number.
All in all, a frustrating and fruitless experience.
For example, a business that has an average transaction amount of $15, sells roughly $1,000 worth of product per month, receives payment via card for 50% of their transactions, and manually enters 50% of their card transactions will pay Square an estimated $233 in fees each year out of an estimated $6,000 in credit card sales.
Finally, some features -- such as customer accounts and professional website tools -- are only available as add-ons for certain users who also pay for a Square Online Plus (eCommerce website builder) plan.
Square for Retail is cheaper than many of its competitors; its Free plan is hard to beat. Its plans also include many features that its competition doesn't, such as customized invoicing, barcode label printing, and a professional product photo app.
Square for Retail ties with competitor Shopify POS and ranks significantly higher than Heartland Retail POS on consumer software review site G2. (To be fair, Heartland Retail POS only had a handful of reviews on G2 when we checked).
| Square for Retail | Shopify POS | Heartland Retail POS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing |
30-day free trial, then the Free plan is $0/month, the Plus plan is $89/month, and the Premium plan has custom pricing. Hardware and accessories are not included. Processing fees apply to all plans. |
3-day free trial, then you can get your first month for $1. After that, the Starter plan is $5/month and the Retail plan is $89/month. Processing fees apply to all plans. |
Plans start at $89/month per station.Hardware and accessories are available as add-ons. Processing fees apply to all plans. |
| Features | Inventory, online sales, transactions, reporting, customer and staff management, and more. | Inventory, online sales, refunds and returns, unlimited registers. | Inventory, online sales, customer and staff management. |
| Consumer reviews | G2: 4.4/5 stars | G2: 4.4/5 stars | G2: 2.6/5 stars |
Read our expert reviews of the best point of sale systems for small businesses.
You can sign up for a 30-day free trial to find out if Square for Retail meets your needs. All you need to sign up for the free trial is an email address. No credit card or commitment is required.
Once you have submitted your email address, you will be asked a few questions about your business, including your company name, your business type and category, and your estimated annual revenue.
Next, you can download the Square: Retail Point of Sale mobile app by either scanning a QR code or submitting your phone number to receive a text with a download link.
Using the Square for Retail app enables you to:
Sign into your Plus account before processing transactions to take advantage of the lower processing fees.
Once you have downloaded the Retail POS app, you can choose your accessories or hardware. Square for Retail will make hardware and accessory recommendations based on your unique business.
The only free product Square offers is its Square Reader for magstripe (which comes with a Lightning connector). All other products can be purchased outright or financed.
Square for Retail offers an always-free option as well as a free trial of their subscription plan. However, both still feature Square's transaction fees, so they technically aren't free.
Yes. While Square for Retail utilizes the Square credit card processing, it offers additional features designed to help merchants optimize their business.
Yes. Square for Retail comes with e-commerce capabilities including integrated sales and a built-in website builder.
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