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If you use Square, the pocket-size credit card reader, in your brick and mortar business today, you could soon be selling to a much larger market online.
The company has just launched Square Market, an online marketplace offering free e-commerce stores to all current Square users.
By offering the free stores, Square is hoping to convert many of the small businesses now using the company’s credit card reader into e-merchants.
How Square Market Works
If your small business decides to open a store on the new Square e-commerce site, your inventory is placed in a neat and tidy layout. The store can be linked to your Twitter account to allow your feed to stream on your store page.
Each item for sale gets its own thumbnail and product page. Transactions are conducted through Square, just as they would be if you ran a customer’s credit card through the smartphone reader. The online store page for a Square account holder also features a map that locates the merchant’s physical address, as well as hours of operation, contact information, and even current specials or promotions.
All sales – both physical and online – are synced on your account’s seller dashboard.
There’s one more benefit in opening your online store on Square Market as opposed to the other e-commerce giants: lower fees. Square takes just 2.75 percent of each sale. That’s much lower than percentages taken by eBay, Amazon, or relative newcomer Etsy.
Following the E-Commerce Trend
Square realizes it’s going to take time and some effort to eventually compete with giants of the e-commerce marketplace like eBay and Amazon, according to a Reuters interview with founder Jack Dorsey.
Square has only been around since 2010 and, in that short time, many small businesses have begun using the company’s free credit card reader and software package to accept credit card purchases and digitally manage inventory.
But Dorsey says Square Market is a bid to enter the emerging e-commerce market too, where revenue is already estimated to be close to $200 billion annually.
Image: Square Market
I just started selling items on Square Market and I Love it – Easy to use and I have my own page for FREE !!!
Louise’s Attic –