Square branches out into e-commerce with new Square Market virtual stores for US businesses
Mobile and digital payment platform Square has moved into a new market today. It's a bit different than what most people might think — it's an e-commerce play called Square Market …
Context & Ripple Effects
Square has been expanding the ways merchants encounter its payments products: Starbucks agreed in January 2013 to process transactions through Square and sell its card readers, while Square introduced a $299 Business in a Box package for physical stores in February. Square Market takes that merchant push into online storefronts for US businesses.
The move matters because Square is no longer confined to the point of sale; it is adding an e-commerce surface alongside its mobile-payment and retail-hardware efforts.
First-order effects
- US businesses gain access to Square Market virtual stores, giving Square a direct position in their online selling operations rather than only their payment transactions.
- Square’s merchant offering broadens from card readers, mobile payments and retail hardware into e-commerce.
Second-order effects
- Square’s Business in a Box proposition becomes more consequential for brick-and-mortar merchants that also need an online presence, tying its physical-store push to a broader merchant-sales workflow.
- E-commerce providers serving small US businesses face a payments company competing for the storefront relationship as well as transaction processing.
Third-order effects
- If Square can connect its retail, mobile and online products around the same merchant base, small-business commerce software will increasingly be contested by platforms spanning multiple sales channels rather than standalone payment tools.
The trend: Square Market is one step in the shift from point-of-sale payments products toward broader merchant-commerce platforms.