Square is looking to modernise the cash register with a free iPad app that turns the tablet into a fully configured merchant point-of-sale system.
The app is designed to supplement the traditional point-of-sale experience by providing a range of built-in loyalty programmes, analytics and custom inventory options.
An attractive dashboard UI offers instant insight into sales data, with the ability to break down sales by month, days of the week, time of day, and size of payment.
Custom permissioning allows merchants to set employee access rights, while tighter integration with Square's Card Case customer facing loyalty programme allows for faster transactions and knowledgeable face-to-face interactions with regular customers. A simple tap of the iPad is all that's needed to wirelessly print receipts and open cash drawers.
Introducing the app, Megan Quinn, director of products at Square, decalres: "I truly believe POS, as you know it today, is dead. This will bring Square to an entirely new, small-market audience (bricks-and-mortar stores)."
Square is not alone in tapping this market. Movilway, the Latin American company that offer mobile pre-piad accounts to the unbanked, has just released a tablet-based point-of-sale system for rural merchants. The custom-built Android tablet allows shop keepers to manage inventory, manage Movilway account "top ups" as well as run other apps.