Join the Discussion: What work does your business need to succeed during/after COVID?

[aarontw]

Hi Seller Community,

The world has changed. Restaurants are shifting to take out, delivery, reduced capacities and outdoor seating. Many Barber shops and Salons have experienced long wait times to re-open. One amazing Seller, @omarswoodworks even pivoted his woodworking business to selling awesome, custom-branded gear online.

Every location is different. Every business has different needs, and different opportunities. The goal of the Seller Community is to help sellers everywhere grow and run their business (with our products or otherwise). We’re proud that Square has responded by quickly building features like on-demand delivery, releasing new contactless readers at lower prices, and adding coupons to online store. 

We also know that we can’t impact every area of businesses that needs to change to succeed in this new landscape. So for that reason we want to ask:

• What work does your business need done to succeed during/after COVID?
• Do you have a business that can help other businesses succeed during these times? What services do you offer?
• If you’re having success now, what is working well for you?

Please share your thoughts by using the reply button to write a response to this post, or engage with other sellers that have posted below. A great way to format your response could be using the bullets below (including pictures is encouraged as well!).

• Your business
• Your location
• Your website or Square Online Store
• The work you need done

Edit 7/8/2020: Examples of work you need done could include having sneeze guards/barriers installed in your restaurant, setting up social distancing markers, creating a contact-less purchase experience.

[MMVintage]

Hello! I own a vintage clothing shop in So Cal. We own the domain memosvintage.com and we have it redirect to our square online store because paying $16 a month just to use our own domain is not ideal and $29 a month for integrated shipping and custom domains is tempting but too expensive for a struggling small business but that's not the point. The things I believe could help brick and mortar businesses like mine are:

• Better customer support. I was on hold for about 50 minutes the other day. 
• A customer facing magstripe reader. We place our NFC reader/dock facing the customer so that employees do not have to touch customer cards but for magstripe only cards, we have no choice. Our setup places our ipad behind our sneezeguard so we can't just rotate our ipad to face our customers.
• One other thing I would like to see is support for a wired customer facing display for the Square Stand. Ideally, this would work just like the one on the Register, allowing customers to sign, tip, select receipt options and enter their email or phone on it. This could run as a stand alone app for android and ios devices (please do not make us buy a $300 ipad when really we just need a touch screen) where the device plugs in to the square stand's usb hub. A customer display is already very useful because customers like to see what they are paying for, how much taxes and fees are and what discounts are being applied if any. In the era of COVID, having a separate screen for employees and customers is also beneficial for the employees' safety. I know some employers give each employee their own touch stylus but we like to use the ipads fingerprint reader to secure the device, defeating the point of the stylus. We are not interested in the Register because it is too expensive and may become obsolete should square stop updating or supporting it whereas iPads are versatile, guaranteed to receive updates for a certain amount of time and may even be replaced if the new models fit the stand. I also am aware that square is testing a wireless customer display but there are several key issues: 1) iPads are expensive. please let us use a $150 android tablet instead (I already have one lying around). 2) we need to be able to turn off the iPads display (atleast the main POS  one) to make the iPad last longer and secure the device, hence wired is better. 3) I could not get it to work despite trying everything on the troubleshooting page.
• Last but not least: a change to the terms of use so that sellers do not have their accounts spontaneously terminated. I copied and pasted the following from the terms of service: "We may terminate these General Terms or any Additional Terms, or suspend or terminate your Square Account or your access to any Service, at any time for any reason." Not specifying what can result in termination makes this clause a very vague threat and we have all read the horror stories about how sellers have had their accounts frozen or terminated for no apparent reason. These sellers are then unable to contact support to fix it because once they are terminated, they are no longer square customers and are thus not entitled to support. We do not need this kind of uncertainty ever and especially not in this crisis. If there is a substantial and helpful change, I might move all aspects of my business over to Square and it's services but for now, I cannot put all my eggs in one (rather volatile) basket.

I'm sure other sellers have more ideas as well! Good luck everyone!

[ram_chandra24]

My 2 cents- 

Identify and Improve online store configuration , Content configuration , Ease to add different product and organize it accordingly, payment method should be integrated with more vendors and should be sleek , I mean with less click get the job done ( one extra click customer gets annoyed).  Shipping and email setting should be thoroughly tested and synch across all the components, different themes and email templates for the online store will be huge win.  Platform to display and sell products in amazon , ebay etc. integration with other system like buy button with google and facebook. Provide seamless user experience with AI (Testing ..Testing ..testing mantra). If Amazon can do it , I am sure Jack and team can do Ecommerce eco system  to complete the  fulfillment steps in the rocking SQ website.  If we can focus on ecommerce -  Business to consumer , consumer to consumer and business to Govt. Bottom line end to end transaction completes in one go with less clicks, that will give a personal touch to the whole user experience. Loyalty depends on the past service and quality of the platform, so these are very important ideas.

Thankyou

[mattd]

• Add blogs for Square Online Store (or a way to revert to Weebly personal editor without a new account)
• Enhanced customization of stores
• Automatic fulfillment of digital items
• Preorder
• Automatic discount sync between Dashboard and Online Store

I started building a store with Square Online Store but ended up transferring the domain. There wasn't enough functionality for what I want to do. I have a more extensive list of common items that come up and expanded details.

Yukora - Yukora.com 

San Francisco

[ram_chandra24]

Sorry to hear it, I love SQ and team always very helpful..

[mattd]

@ram_chandra24, I think the Square team is helpful, it is more so feedback on the functionality/capabilities of the Online Store at the current state.

[ram_chandra24]

Very true, idea and new Online store front enhancement needs to be rolled out quicker to keep the momentum

Thank you

[specialtiesgame]

Since it looks like online shopping will continue to be a primary driver for sales, please add more functionality to the online store.  I would like to let customers drill down to the subcategory they want with fewer clicks, and have a customizable header on each category page.  For example, I have a game and toy store.  I would like to have a "Shop by Age"  and separate major categories visible on the website header (instead of just "shop all") and a header with text and pictures on each category/subcategory page.  I would also like to add options at checkout for gift wrap and/or custom card or message.  Please and thank you.

[icanread2]

 COVID 19 lockdown became a turning point in my business and SQUARE interface has made my life easier.

 I used to do to do educational  service in  group at schools. I then decided to use SQUARE appointments and do one on one distance learning. I am happy I did it with SQUARE! This and my blog really turned my business around.

The improvements I wish to happen are :

--capability for group appointments. 

I created an event though but it was not as successful maybe bc they cannot choose the day that will work for them. 

I am doing one on one right now but having fewer sessions. Doing appointment in groups will be less tiring, more cost efficient with my clients and  profitable to me as well.

 Otherwise I am happy square!

[escobarprivate]

Self employed people with an LLC’s or not,(for those don’t or do I can create an LLC from Scratch and put it to work for you within 6 months)

in these times we to keep growing our companies. If you want to know more, please contact me.

[willamina1]

I have in the past taken capital loans from square that really helped with upgrades, advertising ect. now I could really use another loan to keep on bills , payments ect. However square says I am not eligible even though  i have paid off 3 loans early in the past?.