Square Online Review
Perfect solution for small businessesEasy & fast setup
Unlimited product inventory
No coding skills needed
Integrated with popular marketplaces
Pros & Cons
- It’s free to get started
- SEO and email marketing tools
- Deep integrations with marketplaces
- Professional-looking templates
- Specific features that cater to you
- The templates have limited customization options
- It integrates with few third-party payment gateways.
Plans & Pricing
Square Online is unique amongst POS solutions because it doesn’t attract an initial setup fee. The entire focus is on the transaction fees which start at 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction and can be reduced if you purchase a larger monthly plan. When it comes to the website builder, the core features are free forever but added functionality comes with a fee.
Free
The free plan includes everything you need to start selling online. It has all the basic features and the beauty is that you can upgrade at anytime. Square Online is fast and easy to set up and there are no commitments or long-term contracts. The transaction fee is the same as the Professional and the Performance tier at 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction.
Overview
Square Online is a popular payment solution that powers businesses in multiple countries and is ideal for small and medium brands. It was founded in 2009 by Jim McKelvey and Jack Dorsey as a POS solution but has since expanded into the online realm with a robust website builder.
Features & Functionality
As far as eCommerce functionality is concerned, Square Online has created a solid website builder that comes with the tools needed to put your best foot forward and turn browsers into customers. It offers features specific to different types of businesses such as retail outlets, service businesses, restaurants, and even nonprofits.
Social Selling
Social selling is an important part of generating online sales for new and established stores. The platform has integrations with all the major social media platforms that support selling such as Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. Of course, orders made through those platforms are automatically synced to your Square Online backend.
Inventory Syncing
No matter where an order comes in, it’s automatically synced in one central location. This allows you to get better visibility into your operation and make smart decisions about when to reorder and how much so you can cut down on slow-moving inventory and focus on your best sellers.
Appointment booking
It has an appointment booking tool that comes with a mobile app so you can manage your schedule on the go. It sends out automated SMS reminders, allows you to collect payments directly from the booking page, and even handles recurring appointments.
Multiple fulfillment options
Since Square Online caters to many types of businesses with unique needs, it offers multiple ways to get products to customers. These include standard shipping, the ability to deliver products, and curbside/in-store pickup.
Design & Templates
Square Online doesn’t have many templates but the ones available are high-quality and will give you a head start when building your website. There are multiple template categories which include retail, services, restaurants, and more. It’s important to note that the type of template you choose matters because they have certain features built-in that other templates may not have. For example, a nonprofit has needs that a restaurant may not have and vice versa. Because of this, it can be difficult to switch between templates in different categories.
Ease of Use
The website builder comes with a basic drag-and-drop page editor that lets you add things within predetermined blocks and sections on the page. You won’t be able to create a pixel-perfect design but you will get a good looking website. The interface is straightforward and has a minimal learning curve. If it’s your first time using a website builder then you should feel right at home with Square Online. One thing to note is that this ease of use has limited the design flexibility of the platform.
Customer Support
Square Online allows customers to contact it in multiple ways but it likes to push people towards the community forum and the knowledgebase documents it has prepared. Live reps are online Monday through Friday and can answer most questions immediately.
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Phone Support
Phone support is available Monday through Friday 6 AM to 6 PM. -
Email
Email support is available for all customers. -
Video Tutorials
The official YouTube channel hosts multiple video tutorials. -
FAQ
It has a FAQ that answers different questions depending on which aspect of the product you’re researching. It also has a robust knowledgebase that will answer most questions. -
Community Forum
The community forum is very active and the answers to most questions are available there. -
Blog
The blog has content related to customer success, company news, and different business resources.
Final Word
Over the last decade, Square Online has positioned itself as one of the best solutions for online and offline commerce. It has a solid website builder that checks all the boxes for selling to customers online. It’s designed for people with little technical know-how so the builder is easy to use. Because of its focus on the beginner, it doesn’t give you deep customization abilities. With that being said, websites built with Square Online still look great and convert browsers into customers. One drawback is that it doesn’t have many third-party payment integrations but if you can look beyond that then it’s a great choice.
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