OTTAWA -- The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we shop and now there is a safer way to pay in Canada. Square Inc. has launched a new device that makes it quicker and easier to complete your transactions.
“Square Register is a new point-of-sale (POS) and payments device for small and medium sized businesses,” says Michael MacLennan, Square hardware head of product.
Since 2017, the Square Register has been used by American companies, but is now ready for use north of the border.
“We really wanted to make sure that it was designed properly for Canada before we brought it up there,” says MacLennan. “So it was things like adding Interac support. It was things like the way that tipping happens in Canada is a little bit different than the way tipping happens in the U.S. So we had to adjust that flow.”
MacLennan, who is originally from Toronto, moved to Silicon Valley to help Square create more new and innovative products for consumers and businesses.
“What really makes Square Register special is that it's an all-in-one product,” says MacLennan. “So you don’t need an iPad or a separate payments terminal. It’s all build from Square, from the ground up to all work seamlessly together.”
Toronto’s Kensington Brewing Company, who was part of the Canadian beta testing for Square, has been using the register for three months now.
“First impression is, it’s a very elegant attractive looking piece of technology,” says President of Kensington, Mike Gurr. “You don’t normally, I think, as a customer or vendor think of your POS system as being a sort of work of art. But that’s been the number one impact.”
Gurr says it has made running his business easy and efficient
“At an operational level, it’s just so intuitive and easy to use. Definitely building on the previous model of the POS machine that Square implemented. It’s that, sort of turned up.”
The cashless payment makes transactions safer, but square takes it one step further, literally.
“Basically it allows contactless transactions, and really encourages and educates buyers on how to do contactless transactions,” says MacLennan. “You can separate the buyer facing display and payments from the seller for up to two metres. We have an extended cable that lets you keep that COVID safe distance while you’re doing the transaction.”
A recent survey by Square finds that 72 per cent of Canadians welcome a socially distant, cashless payment option. And now, they have it.
“I think by far, this is the most elegant, all around solution for our sort of business,” says Gurr.
