Square launches iPad-driven 'Business in a Box' hardware for $299
Mobile payment processing company Square announced on Wednesday its new "Business in a Box" ? a product meant to serve as a full point-of-sale system for physical retailers, allowing them to accept payments and perform analytics on their businesses from one device.
Business in a Box works in conjunction with Square Register, Square's app that allows vendors to input custom product inventories as well as accept payments with Square's credit card reader. Business in a Box adds a cash drawer and optional printer to the formula, essentially turning a customer's iPad into part of a cash register.
The package, which retails for $299, comes with the aforementioned cash drawer, a Square card reader, and a WindFall iPad stand from Heckler Design. That "paperless" POS emails receipts to customers instead of printing them. For physical receipts, businesses can pay an additional $300 to have a printer included.
Square's usual processing fees apply. Square users get a free card reader compatible with the iPhone, iPad, and Android devices, and the company takes a 2.75 percent fee per swipe. Businesses with heavy credit card traffic also have the option of paying $275 per month in order to eliminate the per-swipe fee.
Business in a Box works in conjunction with Square Register, Square's app that allows vendors to input custom product inventories as well as accept payments with Square's credit card reader. Business in a Box adds a cash drawer and optional printer to the formula, essentially turning a customer's iPad into part of a cash register.
The package, which retails for $299, comes with the aforementioned cash drawer, a Square card reader, and a WindFall iPad stand from Heckler Design. That "paperless" POS emails receipts to customers instead of printing them. For physical receipts, businesses can pay an additional $300 to have a printer included.
Square's usual processing fees apply. Square users get a free card reader compatible with the iPhone, iPad, and Android devices, and the company takes a 2.75 percent fee per swipe. Businesses with heavy credit card traffic also have the option of paying $275 per month in order to eliminate the per-swipe fee.
Comments
Fantastic idea and implementation, is this the start of the end of windows check outs?
Aren't regular, old fashioned cash registers very expensive?
This looks like a nice product.
You can get an unconnected traditional cash register from Costco pretty cheap: http://www.costco.com/CatalogSearch?storeId=10301&catalogId=10701&langId=-1&keyword=cash+register
But the Square system you can play Angry Birds while waiting for a customer.
This could work really well for kiosk operators.
$300 for the drawer / stand / Square
$400 for the IPad
$300 for a printer
===============
$1,000
As opposed to other systems that network and cost much more.
Or cost less and include more. E.g.
I don't know if the Square swipe fee is reasonable, but I suspect that can be had for less, too.
If only Square would pull their finger out and release over in Europe/UK.
However, Visa have locked everything down as we use PIN codes and not signatures so they demand different technology, not just a card swiper.
What does this give you that the Square product does not? And what about your electricity costs? What about maintenance and the risk of getting viruses?
And can you carry this to different parts of the store to charge up people not necessarily at the register itself? Can you use it to easily and conveniently also maybe display items which are not currently on display but you have for sale?
Finally, that thing is just plain ugly (and the touchscreens usually don't work well because they are usually resistive, although I can't vouch for that particular device since you don't link it).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bagman
This article fails to mention that the $275/month flat rate is very much limited. You can pay $275/month, but it is limited to the first $250K, then the 2.75% rate applies - this means many small businesses cannot use the service and save money, as 2.75% is a lot more than many businesses pay for swipe fees on average.
It's worse than that. The $275 fee is ONLY for transactions under $400, and ONLY up to $21,000 per month. If you use exactly up to the limit, that puts your processing at 1.3%, which is right in line with what a traditional processing company would charge.
Of course the Square business plan is that you can have a point of sale solution for $0 extra, using your existing iPhone or other iOS device. Once you start to become successful, you can buy some accessories if you want. Everone tries to augment income with accessories! So traditional point of sale hardware doesn't really compete.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aaarrrgggh
I really hope someone comes up with a full business in a box-- integrate a NAS with wifi and VPN, and modular apps for things like inventory, services, payroll... that isn't an over-priced cloud solution. One-man consulting/service businesses are a great target, but many other small businesses make sense too.
This could work really well for kiosk operators.
You sure there aren't any good iPad apps for that? Perhaps they could be used in conjunction with Square.