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Square Online Store Review: Key Features, Fees & Alternative
If you run an eCommerce business, finding the right platform to manage your online store is key.
Square online is a popular platform enabling you to start accepting online payments and run your own store. It’s easy to get started and you can choose which features you want based on what you’re willing to pay. There’s even a Free plan, meaning no contracts and no monthly subscription fees.
Here’s a review of Square Online, including its features and fees. It’ll also be compared to Shopify, to see which one comes out on top.
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Square Online Store Review: Quick Overview
Before jumping into the full review, here’s an overview of the fees and features of Square Online.
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Square Online Store: Key Features
Square Online is a fully-functional eCommerce platform. It offers everything you need to manage and optimize your online store.
Square’s eCommerce website builder enables you to fully design and customize your website to match your brand. You’ll be guided through the steps, meaning you don’t need any coding experience to create a professional-looking website.
Square is flexible to different business models and sizes. So if a full online store is too much for your business, you can easily sync your Instagram feed to a one-page online shop. If you operate both a brick-and-mortar and online shop, you can automatically import in-store items to your online shop. That means your online and offline shops will always stay synced.³
Alongside its website builder, Square offers built-in SEO tools to get your online shop more visibility. You can manage your SEO strategy through integrations with Google and Meta.³
Your customers will be able to create their own accounts in your store. That way, they’ll be able to track orders, save their payment preferences and receive personalized product recommendations.³
Square enables you to track your customers’ data. You can then use their data with Square Marketing (for an extra monthly fee) to drive targeted marketing campaigns.⁴ This can help increase customer retention.
Square’s integrated point of sale (POS) technology makes accepting secure payments easy. You’ll be able to accept debit and credit cards, gift cards, Apple Pay, Cash App Pay, Google Pay, Afterpay and more.³
You’ll also be able to access inventory management tools, including automated purchase orders and organizational tools.⁵
One of Square’s main selling points is the number of tools and services it offers. For example, you can use Square Invoices to manage your invoicing needs. You can also use Square Marketing to market your products. Its integrated POS system, with in-store POS hardware that syncs with your online store, makes running your business a breeze.
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Ease of Use
As already mentioned, Square’s website builder and intuitive interface make it easy to use. Its fee structure is also easy to understand and transparent.
The fact that many features can easily be integrated with each other makes running Square—and your online store—far easier.
Customers rate Square highly. Square Online store reviews get an average rating of 4 / 5 on Trustpilot, with more than 4,600 reviews².
Users rate Square simplicity, transparency regarding fees and easy to use interface. That said, a minority of customers complain about sub-optimal customer service.
Customer Service
Square offers a comprehensive help center with many FAQs and how-to articles. They also have an AI Chatbot to help answer your questions. You can also contact Square customer service via phone, email, live chat and social media.⁶
Square Online Store Fees
One of the perks of Square is its modular fee structure. You can choose between different payment plans depending on the features you want access to.
For Square Online, there are three different plans available with the following fees:
- Free—no monthly fees
- Plus—$29 USD per month when billed annually
- Premium—$79 USD per month when billed annually¹
Both the Free and Plus plans have a per transaction fee of 2.9% + $0.30 USD. The Premium plan, designed for businesses scaling their operations, charges 2.6% + $0.30 USD per transaction.
Keep in mind that you can only offer PayPal as a payment method with the Plus and Premium plans. With the Free plan, you’ll also be restricted to having the Square logo on your website and in your domain name
If you want to take advantage of Square Marketing, it starts at $15 USD per month for Square Email Marketing. You’ll then pay for the number of subscribed customers you have in your Square Customer Directory.
If you want to also use the Square Text Message Marketing subscription, it starts at $10 USD per month. You’ll then pay for the number of text messages you send.⁴
Square also allows you to customize your own loyalty program with Square Loyalty. You can run promotions, offer status tiers and optimize promotions. You’ll be charged based on the number of store locations you have and how many loyalty visits are made in a month:
- 0 - 500 loyalty visits—$45 USD per month, per location
- 501 - 1,500 loyalty visits—$75 USD per month, per location
- 1,501 - 10,000+ loyalty visits—$105 USD per month, per location⁷
A loyalty visit is defined as any time a customer enrolls in your loyalty program, earns loyalty points or redeems rewards.
Square Invoicing luckily offers a free plan, in addition to a $20 per month Plus plan.⁸ Depending on your business, you have the option to upgrade to the Plus plan when you want access to the extra features.
Square Online Store Pros and Cons
Here’s an overview of Square Online’s pros and cons.
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What are the benefits of Square Online Store?
Square Online is great for small business owners wanting to set up an online store. You can customize your website without coding experience, and easily integrate it with Square POS. This makes Square excellent for online sales.
Square grows with your business. Depending on the fees you’re willing to pay, you can access additional features. This includes marketing, advanced customization and more. This ability of Square to grow alongside your business makes it a practical and affordable option for small business owners.
Square is also perfect for keeping your online store in sync with your brick-and-mortar store. You can also automate many processes through Square, including inventory and order management.
What are the considerations of Square Online?
Despite the benefits of Square, it’s important to understand that many valuable features come with higher fees. That means you need to be ready to pay extra to access advanced features.
Square also may not be suitable for merchants with high sales volumes, due to its high transaction fees.
For some merchants after a high level of customization options, Square may not be the best choice either.
Square Online vs Shopify
Both Square Online and Shopify are excellent choices when it comes to eCommerce. Just like Square, Shopify offers an end-to-end solution for running your online and brick-and-mortar store. Selling on Shopify is easy and offers you a high level of customization.
But there are some differences between the two providers.
One of the key differences between Square Online vs Shopify is pricing.
Shopify offers six membership plans, based on your business’s needs:
- Starter—$5 USD per month
- Basic—$24 USD per month billed once annually
- Shopify—$69 USD per month billed once annually
- Retail—$89 USD per month
- Advanced—$299 USD per month billed once annually
- Plus—$2,300 USD per month billed once annually⁹
Something to note is that while Shopify offers a free trial, all membership plans are paid plans. In contrast, Square’s basic plan is free of charge.
With Shopify, contracts last either a month, 1 year or 3 years. That means you’ll need to continue paying until your term ends, even if you want to cancel your account.⁹
While Square has a subscription-based payment model for some of its higher plans and additional features, it doesn’t require a contract. This makes Square a lower risk option financially compared to Shopify.
Although Shopify’s pricing may look exorbitant on its Advanced and Plus plans, this reflects another key difference between the two providers. Shopify is better suited to businesses of all sizes, particularly those looking to scale. It offers competitive transaction fees for high volume merchants, saving you money compared to Square. It’s also more suitable for businesses looking for a high level of customization.
That said, if you run a small to medium sized business and want to set up your online store without making commitments, Square Online may be the better choice.
Conclusion: Is Square Online the Best Choice for Your Business?
So, is Square the right choice for your business?
The answer depends highly on what exactly your business needs.
If you’re looking to start an online store, connect it with your physical store and start selling as soon as possible, Square could be the perfect match. Square is a cheap, no-strings-attached online store and payment processor, with a pay-as-you-go fee structure.
While its transaction fees are fairly high, this can be offset by its low fees in other aspects of its services—particularly its Free plan.
That said, Square doesn’t fit every business. If you’re a high volume sales merchant or are looking for the highest level of customization possible, Shopify can be worth considering. Shopify can also be a great fit for eCommerce-only focused merchants rather than those needing both brick-and-mortar and online support.
Discover Wise Business: Receive International Payments with Ease
Square Online is an excellent way to reach your target consumers.
But perhaps you want to expand your business to an international consumer base. Or you already process a frequent number of international transactions.
In either case, a Wise Business account can help make things cheaper. Wise is not a bank, but a Money Services Business (MSB) and a smart alternative to banks.
With a Wise Business account, you can receive major local account details for a one-time fee, enabling you to pay and get paid like a local. This makes it easier for customers to pay you, and saves your business money at the same time.
You can also hold more than 40 currencies all in one place. You can convert between these currencies at the mid-market rate, saving you on hidden fees.
Sources:
- Plans & pricing - Square Online
- Square US Reviews
- Sell Online - Build a Free Online Store or eCommerce Website | Square
- Marketing Automation Tools for Small Businesses | Square
- Retail POS System - Retail Point of Sale Software | Square
- Square Support Center - US
- Customer Loyalty Program Software
- Free Invoice Software
- Pricing
All sources checked June 2024.
*Please see terms of use and product availability for your region or visit Wise fees and pricing for the most up to date pricing and fee information.
This publication is provided for general information purposes and does not constitute legal, tax or other professional advice from Wise Payments Limited or its subsidiaries and its affiliates, and it is not intended as a substitute for obtaining advice from a financial advisor or any other professional.
We make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether expressed or implied, that the content in the publication is accurate, complete or up to date.
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