New payment tech arrives to help small businesses
Square, the American point-of-sale (POS) system founded by Twitter boss Jack Dorsey, has arrived in the UK. It brings with it an easier system for small businesses to take card and mobile payments, helping them to streamline processes and simplify capital flow.
What is Square?
The POS system lets retailers and service providers turn their tablet or smartphone into a payment terminal. Once the Square Reader is connected to a device via Bluetooth, it can be used to accept payments from the likes of MasterCard, Visa and American Express cards. The reader can also be paired with the Square app to access real-time sales data, invoicing and digital receipts.
The Square Reader is being marketed with an initial cost of £39, followed by a flat fee of 1.75% for in-person payments and 2.5% for other transactions. There’s no minimum transaction, so this stays the same whether the charge is £1 or £1,000.
Positive reception
Dorsey highlighted widespread official support for SMEs in the UK, even amid the economic uncertainty over Brexit. He commented that, "no matter what was happening in government...there would always be an appreciation of the role of small businesses and how important it was to support them and how important it was to help them grow as well."
Unlike in Square’s US home market, UK businesses are already embracing new payment tech – and say that the American company's entry into the market won't necessarily be easy. Speaking to the Financial Times, Jacob Morgan of digital payment specialists Forrester Research said, "They will have to demonstrate additional value and benefit to the merchant community; it won’t be a repeat of the ease they had in the US."
Potential impact
For small businesses, a new push into payment tech means another chance to make it as easy as possible for customers and clients to pay on time. Not only that, but these kinds of solutions mean you can track your cashflow in a single space – a time-saving addition for the 50% of SMEs who have to regularly deal with late payments.
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