> They have not yet delivered a polished product that's enjoyable to use and makes lots of money.
The small business I work for recently switched to Square Register via an iPad and the Square Stand for all POS and it's pretty brilliant. It's a big step up from using a phone plus the regular little reader, and setup and use are quite simple even for our tech-illiterate employees. Judging by the popularity of the related receipt printer and cash drawers on Amazon, we're far from the only ones to make this jump recently.
I don't know how much money they're making per $100 stand, but they've made the barrier to a modern flexible POS system so low that I'd be surprised if their share of the payment processing pie isn't growing quickly.
It's not the stand they make money on, it's the 2.75% payment processing rate. That is higher than what competitors charge (closer to 2%), and as business grows that can add up to a significant premium. That is what drives them off of Square. So there's a kind of glass ceiling there.. to keep those customers Square would need to renegotiate a lower rate that trims down their gross margin.
Square does have a really good niche in the mom-and-pop shops where 2.75% is an ok price given the easy of signup and free POS system. But at the same time there may be significant customer acquisition and support and fraud costs in that niche.
The small business I work for recently switched to Square Register via an iPad and the Square Stand for all POS and it's pretty brilliant. It's a big step up from using a phone plus the regular little reader, and setup and use are quite simple even for our tech-illiterate employees. Judging by the popularity of the related receipt printer and cash drawers on Amazon, we're far from the only ones to make this jump recently.
I don't know how much money they're making per $100 stand, but they've made the barrier to a modern flexible POS system so low that I'd be surprised if their share of the payment processing pie isn't growing quickly.