Square is a major player in online selling.
Square revolutionized the market with its quick and affordable monetizing solutions.
Anyone can now open a Square account to start taking payments from wherever they’re located. Square is the best choice for offline and POS payments.
Square can transform digital transactions as well.
Square allows merchants to create online shops for a minimal cost. This makes it easier than ever to go digital.
Square Online Features
Square makes ecommerce simple.
Signing up for the digital plan will give you access to a store that is simple, intuitive, and functional. This allows anyone to sell in a new way. This offering is similar to the other Square offerings. It offers ease-of-access.
To get started with web design and coding, you don’t have to be an expert. This is great news for beginners. Square may not offer as much advanced experience as other designers who are more focused on enterprise clients.
Square has a lot to offer, despite some limitations.
- Get a free URL
- Unlimited hosting for free
- Inventory tracking and management
- Responsive web design
- Inventory tracking and management
- Advanced and integrated reporting
- Integration seamless with Square’s other products
- Support for pickup in-store
Square Online Pricing
The pricing of Square has always been a major selling point for merchants.
You can set up your online store with Square marketplace for as low as $99! You only have to pay processing fees if you sign up for the free plan. You pay for payment processing ( 2.9% on each sale plus $0.30) and nothing else.
There are several options for business leaders who want more functionality in their online store. You can upgrade to:
- Professional: $16/month, or $12/month annually
- Performance: $26/month, or $29/month annually
- Premium: $72 per Month, or $79 annually
Functionality and features are what differentiate the “free” plan from the paid plans. The free plan does not offer unlimited storage, while all paid plans do. If you select the free plan, you will also see square ads on your content.
The Professional plan offers additional features such as custom domains and site statistics. You can access third-party integrations and custom code.
It’s basically the difference between a basic solution for your eCommerce store and something custom-made for ecommerce.
Square Online Pros and Con
Square Online Pros
- Predictable pricing
- There are no monthly fees for this free option
- Square Online is great for small businesses
- All-in-one Payment System
- It’s easy to load products
- It’s great for connecting your POS and your online store
- Paying accounts with unique advanced features
- Square Online can be integrated with other ecommerce solutions
- There are many great themes available
Square Online Cons
- Excellent shipping strategy, with no adjustable rates
- Square is known for having account stability problems
- Customer service could be improved
- Certain features are only available to accounts with high-cost pricing
Square Online Review: User Interface and Ease of Use
You will get a great user experience, no matter how much you pay for Square Online.
The Square Online platform allows you to sell everything, from physical goods to digital items, carryout orders, tickets for events, and many more. Donations are also accepted. However, you cannot accept donations from certain businesses and other items.
It takes just a few minutes for you to create your Square account.
You’ll need to manage your inventory. This is true for all ecommerce sites. Logging into your dashboard will show you a list of all your options to the left.
To go to your welcome page, click on “Online Store”.
You can click on the “Get Started” button to get started building the site you desire. Square offers many great themes to help you get started. These themes don’t look outdated or dated like the free WooCommerce and WordPress themes. You can also change the look of your store by clicking on “Edit Store”
Every design that you select is built to be responsive as you would expect for an ecommerce store application. This means your customers can access it from any device they might have.
After you have chosen the right theme, you will be asked for the details of your online store. This includes the URL and DNS settings. Square has a guide that can help you with this.
There are other options available to you as well. The solution is compatible with Weebly, BigCommerce and other applications so you can also set up an online store using those apps. If you need to create a unique environment for your website, you can even use the Square API.
How to Set Up Your Square Online
How do you set up a successful Square Online?
It’s actually much easier than you might imagine. Square makes it easy to set up an account, accept credit cards, process orders, and list products. The best part is that you can get an online store free of charge when you sign up to the Square POS. This means that anyone who uses Square can have one.
This is a step-by–step guide to what you will need.
Step 1: Create your Square Online Account
First, you must create a free online account.
Your account allows you to access all the benefits of Square dashboard including store controls and information about your products. To get started, you will only need your email address and a password. Square will however ask where you are located.
Step 2: Create your URL
After you have successfully logged into your account, you can now make sure people can find you online. This means you need to choose a URL for your store. You can enter your website title in the Settings Screen. The Square domain will automatically host it.
Step 3: Complete the Important Information
You will need to fill out some additional details in the Settings screen on the Square Online. If you plan to ship and deliver orders online, you will need to enter delivery details and shipping fees.
You can choose free shipping if the item’s price includes a markup for shipping and delivery. This option is preferred by most customers, and it may be a great way to increase your online sales.
It’s worth including information about your Return Policy and Business Hours in addition to your shipping details. You can display your return policy rules and basic information about your returns in the Shipping section.
Your return policy gives your customers extra confidence when they buy from you. However, your business hours demonstrate that you are a trustworthy company that customers can contact.
Step 4: Create your online store theme
After you have completed the “Settings” section of Square Online, you can start to create a website appearance that makes you stand out. Square makes it easy to adapt your store’s design. You only need to click on “Edit Store” to begin.
First, choose a theme for your store. You can test different themes online and customize your website to reflect your brand. Once your ecommerce website is launched successfully, you can switch to another theme.
There are two main differences between Square Online’s available themes: the size of your header and featured images. Square suggests that you use specific image sizes for each theme.
You will need to match the image’s size to your specific theme requirements if you have a logo you wish to use on your store. If you wish, you can also insert the name of your store as text.
Step 5: Transform Your Website
Once you have chosen your theme, you can start editing it according to your requirements. Square will guide you through the editing process of your theme using a series of easy instructions. This is so that you don’t need to learn how to build a store.
To add logos, click on the box that says “Add Logo”. Upload the hero image from your website to the Feature Image Space. This will be your main home screen image. When you are done, scroll down to the bottom of the Store Editor screen. Upload your product images, or any other photos to be displayed alongside your Contact and Business Hours information.
After you have finished bringing your theme to life you will be ready to add products to your shop so that you can start making real profits.
Step 5: List your products
It is simple to add item listings to your website. Square will track all of your products with a central library. This means that no matter where you sell your items online, Square POS will have access to your sales data and online sales.
Square Online’s centralized approach to online store management makes it easy to sell. You can also change the settings for each item you wish to sell. You can also pull items directly into your online store listings from the Store editor screen.
Step 6: Open your new online store
Once all products have been successfully listed, it’s time to launch your online shop. This is again a very simple process. Scroll up to the top of your Store Editor page, and click the green “Launch” button. Square will upload your store immediately and make it live.
Selling is simple from there.
You’ll have your own store and be ready to sell in no time. Square POS also includes marketing tools like Square email marketing that will help you convert customers.
Square Online Templates and Designs
Square was specifically created to provide business leaders with an easy way to go online and get started selling. It is easy to create a store using the available templates and themes. Square Online does not offer as many templates as other companies.
You’ll be directed to a design environment when you first start using the platform. Square lets you choose the colors that best represent your brand. You can also import a logo and switch between layouts.
There are no templates that can be used to help you get started but you have the freedom to make your site unique. Square Online’s website builder should be familiar to you. Square uses Weebly software.
Square encourages website owners to create websites that are easy to use and engaging. To stand out online, you don’t need to push the limits of design. A professional-looking website can convince your audience that they are worth their time.
Square allows you to build your website one page at time once you have established a basic layout. You can copy/paste page layouts and add or subtract blocks according to the modules you require. It’s easy to start site-building if you don’t have much knowledge.
Content blocks may not be the best tool for you if your site needs to look great. You can’t change the size or position of text boxes. And you won’t be able to make many changes if you have a particular design idea in mind.
Square requires that you add a block to your existing site in order to add a piece of content. It is not possible to add a text box directly to your website. You don’t have the ability to edit CSS or HTML. This means that you cannot bring in a web designer or developer to make any changes.
Square Online layouts and designs are easy to use and flexible. You can also change the look of your layout whenever you like. However, customers will be turned off by a lack of customization.
Square Online Review: Integrations
Square is one of the most popular online store builders. However, there are limitations to what you can do. It’s important to look for website builders that offer integrations with third-party providers.
Square Online offers many eCommerce features, so don’t be discouraged if you feel restricted. Square Online will allow you to integrate with many other tools. More than 100 third-party and add-on integrations are available, including ones for accounting, gift cards and marketing, real-time POS solutions and invoicing.
While Square doesn’t have as many integrations as other options on the market it still offers a decent selection. Your Square Online store can be integrated with Instagram. This allows you to send someone who clicks on your products directly to Square.
Square integrates with a variety of eCommerce companies and software solutions, including WooCommerce, 3DCart and BigCommerce. You can create an online store with another provider and use Square as your payment processor. Square can be used in conjunction with another eCommerce software option if you need a higher-performance plan for your online store.
Square offers developers access to several APIs (application programming interfaces), which allows them to have more control. You might be able build custom connections or add-ons for your store if you have the right developers.
Square Online Product Management
Importing and managing products is the most difficult part of setting up an online shop.
The great news about Square Online, is that your inventory will sync up automatically based on any existing Square solutions. If you already have a Square POS you can sign in to your account and begin pulling in items.
This is a great benefit for those who are just starting out. Square automatically updates your inventory when you sell products. This means you don’t have to keep track of how many products you have.
Square will prompt you to add the products you wish to sell to your store as soon as you have it set up. You will need to determine what Sales Tax you are going to implement first. Also, Square gives you the option to offer clients extras along with their purchase. For example, you might include a spare brush in a cosmetics package.
Square allows you to organize products into categories. This makes it easier to manage. You can access your Square Dashboard to find the options to add a category and sales tax information if you don’t import your items immediately.
It is easy to add products to your online store. You can create sections that contain specific products or place them all in the same section.
To open a new box, click “Add Item” under each section.
You can provide more information for each product listing.
You will need to provide a description and photos of the items, as well as pricing and tax information.
You will find the more advanced options at the bottom of this page. Here you can disable or enable an item’s visibility in the store if it’s not ready for launch yet or you have run out of stock.
Square is unique because you can import your entire product catalog directly from the Register app. Simply click on the “Add Item” button and choose to import from your library. If you have hundreds of items, you can import them directly from CSV files.
Once your product library is set up in Square Online, it’s time to get started on your digital venture.
Square offers many features that will make managing your business easier. You can create low-stock alerts to send you an email when you run out of stock. Your dashboard allows you to quickly check inventory levels.
Square Online Shipping
This section won’t apply if you sell digital products in Square like ebooks or downloads. If you plan to ship products in-land and overseas, you will need to look at the Square Shipping features.
This is the Square Online that some people find the most frustrating. You will have to decide whether you want free shipping on every item in your shop or a flat rate per product when setting up your store. This is a problem if you sell pieces that are different in weight or size and the price may be different.
This is the easiest way to solve this problem. Simply offer free shipping for all your products. This will allow you to adjust the price of your products to pay shipping costs. This might result in slightly unusual prices but it might be attractive to your customers, even if they have to pay more.
Square offers the possibility to add additional shipping costs, but it doesn’t look very appealing.
Your customers will be offended by the little “+ $5”
It would be much easier to achieve good results if Square combined the two numbers and charged a basic fee. Square’s digital strategy is failing in this area for the moment.
It’s not possible to have everything perfect in an online store.
Square Online Completing Online Purchases
You’ll be able to make sales and manage your orders on Square. Shipping issues aside You can allow your customers to order online and pick up their products in-person if you have Square Point of Sale integration.
You can allow customers to pay online for services by clicking on a button to add the option to your cart. It is easier to take Square POS payments in person, even though it sounds simpler.
You can click into your dashboard to see a list all pending orders when you are running a square Online. These could be food orders, product requests or anything else.
The only problem is that each order must be marked as “fulfilled” to receive payment. Square will retain the money from the customer until you have completed the order. This does have the advantage of allowing you to offer better service to your customers by adhering to a certain standard.
Square assumes, for example, that an order will be processed within seven days. Square will automatically refund customers if they don’t fulfill their orders by the deadline. You can modify this number at any time.
You can also add tracking information to an order once it is complete. To do this, you will need to locate the information you wish to send and then contact the customer. You can’t update your client with one click. This can be a problem if you have to update multiple customers or hundreds at once.
If you don’t have time, the ShipStation option is available. This will track and manage your electronic orders. Square automatically generates confirmation email for you after you have completed a transaction. You will need to fulfill the sale of a digital download if you are selling it.
Although the Square online payment system is not the easiest, it’s still quite user-friendly, especially if you don’t pay anything for your store. You can also choose to accept orders automatically if your store sells in-store products.
Square Online Customer Service
How about getting extra help in setting up your online shop?
You will likely need some guidance, especially if you are selling your products digitally. Square offers a variety of ways to contact them. You can contact the sales team by filling out a form or tweeting @SqSupport
It might seem confusing to click on the “Contact Sales” option on Square’s website. This takes you to a contact form (read our Weebly review). Not something Square has branded. SquareUp.com does not own the website building functionality.
Square Knowledgebase is a place where you can get your support by yourself. This is a comprehensive resource for anyone who wants to get started in the sales market. You can browse the articles, see screenshots and find other helpful tidbits. You can also visit the strong seller community to get additional guidance.
Square Online: Is it right for your Ecommerce business?
Should you consider the Square online?
The new Square Online solution can be a great launching point for those who are just getting started in the digital market. You don’t need to have any coding or technical knowledge to get started. It’s also easy to set up your inventory.
Square can be used to make product pages, integrate with other online shopping carts, and process payments. If you want advanced tracking and analytics, however, you will need a professional package.
Square’s online shop doesn’t offer everything. If you are purchasing a premium package, for example, you won’t have the ability to link your online store with your social media accounts immediately. It can also be difficult to manage customer support and order fulfillment.
Square Online’s handling of shipping costs is a major problem. You can’t charge extra shipping fees for items that cost more than you want. If you are new to digital selling, Square’s online shop is worth a try. It’s completely free to use, great for beginners and gives you complete control over your eCommerce strategy.
