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My New Square Register Review

We were lucky enough to get our hands on a couple of the New Square Registers and we've been using them for a couple of weeks now, so here's my completely unbiased review of the sweet new hardware.

 

 

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+ Appearance:
Holy cannoli this thing is beautiful. The dark gray metal, the huge screens, the beautiful angles, it's an absolute marvel that definitely classes up our shop. While looks aren't everything, they absolutely help. We're big fans.

  

+ Dedicated System:

We really love that all this thing is and does is a register. No more dealing with locking down the iPad or worrying about my employees doing other things on it. It automatically reboots everynight in case there's a new update, and if it does it updates automatically.

 

 

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+ Customer Facing Display:

This is the real reason we got this thing, the customer facing display is worth its weight in gold. No more customers asking us to go back and tell them how much each thing costs, and ask again for the total, it's all right there in front of them, updating as we ring things up. The customer is responsible for putting in their own card, which frees up my employees to bag things up, and lowers risk of my employees forgetting to give them the card back. And if the customer puts in the card the wrong way, it tells them that and shows them how to put it in the right way. Genius!

 

We also love that it can either be docked on the back of the register or connected with a wire. While when it's docked it makes it a little harder if you need to override anything, or swipe to load up a gift card, it's not too bad.

 

The display is also a touch screen of course, so the customer can sign if needed, choose their own receipt method, type in their own phone number or email, and all that! We'd love to be able to customize the receipt screen in the future which is not available yet (we don't want them to be able to print a receipt) but that's hopefully coming. We use the Loyalty system, so the customer can claim their own stars and type in their own phone number which is a huge time saver and puts the onus on the customer to interact, rather than just us. While this screen and system can use a bit of work and polish to make it easier and less cumbersome, we love the potential and cant wait to see what this thing can do in the future.

 

 

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+ Bigger Screen:

We've been begging for a bigger screen ever since we got our first Square running iPad. There's room for more text under each item, and the text is all bigger which makes readability incredibly easy. It's also nice having the permanent side bar with pages and categories all there all the time. It takes a bit of getting used to the pages being on the side instead of the bottom, but it's easy enough.

  

- It's still new:

Most of my complaints and issues with this lie in the fact that it's a really really new device that's not even fully in stock yet. There's so much new tech and new possibilities with this thing that it takes time to polish things and develop software and processes that fully take advantage of what it can do. But from what I've seen with Square over the past 5 years of using it, this thing is going to be even better than it is pretty soon. It all can be fixed with software updates.

 

- The Fees:

While I don't like the new fee structure, since my average transaction sizes make it so I pay more for fees with this than with a standard iPad, to us all of the benefits are worth it. We're hoping to hit the mark soon, so we can apply for lower rates, and having a customer facing display that makes it really apparent that we accept credit cards should help us get there!

 

Hope this helps! Overall we're in love and we're glad we got them!

Let me know if you have any questions!

Pesso

 

 

 

UPDATED: 2-9-18

 

Another 2 months of use, and we love them just as much as before. Still some kinks left to work through, but they've already improved a bunch of bugs that were bugging us.

 

We love the Register so much, we got ourselves a third one!

After some sweet slight renovations this winter here's our updated setup!

 

We got a wider, shallower, and taller Register Counter to fit 2 side by side with the cash drawer inside with no pesky wires showing, and got rid of the glass for a more open, airy, modern, inviting, and interactive vibe. We love it!

 

We're also now promoting our Stickers and Gift Cards with the little Table Marker stands which puts them right into view of customers and has already helped us sell more!

 

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Pesso - he/him
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Thank you for writing this review, @pessosices! Our team is always at work to keep improving how Register operates - thank you for being patient and realizing that it takes time. I'll share your review with the product team to make sure they see your feedback. 

 

Also, "Holy cannoli this thing is beautiful." is my new favorite Seller Community quote! 😂 

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@marleymae


There is a 5 port USB Hub on the charging cabel so you can connect any compatible USB devices like barcode scanners

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@GRAYFASHION

 

 

Here's a photo, it works really well!2018-01-17 07.41.23.jpg

 

 

Pesso - he/him
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@pessosices, I am in process of opening up a store, and going from a  square card reader to POS system, big jump!. So, given my limited experience, do you recommend going directly to the new register, or going the IPad route, from an ease of learning and set up. I also, understand that even though the register only runs the POS, if you sign up for square for retail for extra inventory features, you can run it from your dashboard on another device. Can someone confirm this for me, please? 

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@ellasolive


Congrats on taking the next step and jump!

 

That's tough. It all depends on your needs.

 

The Register might be a drop easier to set up than the iPad & Stand just because it's an all in one and you don't have to deal with more moving parts and setting up an ipad and Apple ID and locking everything down. But it's also more of an investment and has different features. If the features are worth it to you and work well for you, go for the Register. If you pay for Retail, you get the added inventory features and things like that on the back end, correct. If you want more flexibility to run different things, go for the iPad and Stand.

 

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have more questions!

Pesso - he/him
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@pessosices,

 

thanks for your reply, besides all the feartures you mentioned with the register, what are some of the additional key features you find usefull with the register vs. the stand? Is the product grid set up pretty much the same as what you would do with the Ipad? Also, I understand you have 7 screens with the register that you can put your categories on vs. 5 with Ipad. About the ony other thing I need to be able to do on the register, is access music, but I think I can figure out a way to do it from another device. 

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@ellasolive

 

The Customer Facing Display is the biggest draw of it for us. Huge benefits of that.

The grid is the same, but you also have an option to set up just Text buttons in 3 columns of 9 buttons, which is interesting.

There's also the constant side bar with your categories and discounts and gift cards so you dont need to take up Buttons on the grid for those, which saves space.

Those are the big things!

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Probably the biggest plus for me and selling point is the front facing customer pad. We’ve been using it for about 3 weeks and no glitches. With the iPad and stand we would occasionally have to take it out of the stand and reboot it, and it was always at an in opportune time. 

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Thanks so much for this review & the questions/comments are very helpful.  I've been debating stand vs register for my retail boutique and am leaning towards the register.  Do you HAVE to print out receipts?  I'd rather have text, email or no receipt options like the mobile app since I don't want to have to buy another device and needing to buy paper for it.  Does this print out barcodes for items & if so, what device/s  & supplies would I need for printing them?  I'd like to move to a bar scanner instead of manual entry.  Thanks in advance!!!!

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Glad I could help!

 

It depends on your local laws, but we're in a very similar situation. We have an etherenet printer hooked into an iPad running Square POS for our Pickup Orders and for the rare customer that insists on a printed receipt. This way our Square Registers only give the option for Text & Email receipts, but if they want one printed we can run over and print one.

 

Bar code scanning & printing takes a separate label based printer and software to create barcodes (like Square Retail, or others) and a supported USB Barcode Scanner to scan them.

 

Pesso - he/him
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Thank you SO much for your help!  Really appreciate it.  Good luck with your business!

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We've upgraded to the new Square Register, which we love, but I'm already having to buy a new barcode scanner because the stand isn't Bluetooth compatible. I figured our printer would work as it's USB, but we can't get it to work -- does anyone know if the Star TSP100 will work? Or do we also need to buy a new printer? That may be a dealbreaker, unfortunately. 😞

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Hi, that’s the receipt printer we use and it works perfectly. 

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@marleymae - here's the list of Square Register compatible hardware.

 

A few different Star TSP series printers are supported: 

If you're having a lot of trouble with a supported printer, feel free to give our support team a call so we can help you troubleshoot one-on-one. 

 

Thanks @Renoparrot for your input on this too - glad to hear your existing printer is working well with Register! Let us know if you have any tips on connecting the printer that might help @marleymae  👍

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Thanks @Kpay for the most up to date compatibility list & link! Much appreciated!

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What barcode scanner is compatible with Register?  On the specs for the Symbol LS2208 it says only compatible with Square Stand.  Also, do barcode printers need to be compatible with Register?  Thanks!

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Are the fees different?? 

 

- The Fees:

While I don't like the new fee structure, since my average transaction sizes make it so I pay more for fees with this than with a standard iPad, to us all of the benefits are worth it. We're hoping to hit the mark soon, so we can apply for lower rates, and having a customer facing display that makes it really apparent that we accept credit cards should help us get there!

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yes, square register pricing is 2.5% + 10¢ per transaction. after $40 you are saving money on the new pricing.  Also if you have custom pricing with Square already your custom rate overrides the new Square Register pricing.

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For the new Square Register does the customer facing display provide ability for cusomter to enter their e-mail address after finishing the sale?  On the current iPad there is the option to enable them to sign up to receive e-mails and it brings up the keyboard to type it in.  How is this handled on the new Squre register where you have the smaller customer facing screen and cannot rotate the larger screen?  I have not seen any videos or material on this.  This item is vital to our decision to upgrade since we collect alot of e-mail that are later used to market to these customers.

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Hey @glayop - Great question! The Customer Display portion of the Square Register will allow the customer to enter any information requested. For things like saving a customer to your directory, they'll be prompted to enter the information on the smaller display and you'll also have it pop up on your end in case you'd like to enter the information for them. It isn't necessary for them to view the larger seller-facing screen at any point in the process.

 

Hope that helps clarify things for you!

Puka - She/They
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I just ordered a register for my salon. Although the majority of my swipes are under $40, I'm willing to pay a little more for convenience as the OP stated. There's been too many hugs lately that is causing my chip reader to disconnect intermittently, and there's a bug when checking out clients through appointments. Is there any plan to integrate Appointments into the register in the future? I'm going to have to continue having a spare iPad on my counter just for this and that seems cumbersome...

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