Square gift card

Square Adds Gift Card Capability to Square Register in Canada

April 9, 2015         By: Steven Anderson

Square is a service that’s proven valuable for a lot of merchants: the ability to take credit and debit cards, among other forms of payment, from a tablet or smartphone with an equipped dongle or the like has proven to be a mainstay for its users.

Now, Square’s taking it one step further by bringing physical gift card capability to Square Register, a move that should prove helpful for Canadian Square sellers.

Square brought gift card offerings into the United States market last November. The service has only recently launched in Canada, and allows retailers to run gift cards through the Square service for a charge of between $1 and $1.50 (in United States dollars) per card, with the amount charged depending on the quantity of gift cards involved.

This actually compares favorably to other processors, according to reports, which often charge as much as $3.50 per card, before including such fees as redemption, subscription and transaction fees. What’s worse, since the gift card options often don’t run on the point-of-sale solution of choice, but rather from an independent party, tracking the cards can be difficult.

With Square, however, everything runs through that primary Square point of sale, from the ordering to the use. Users can even have the cards made with a custom design that reflects the business in some fashion, which allows for extra branding opportunities and a way to help users know just where the card came from.

Gift cards have long been regarded as a great way to drum up business; after all, it represents what amounts to a pre-paid shopping trip at a certain location which a consumer likely already shows affinity for.

The recipient of the gift card gets to come into the store, buy what’s desired, and leave, happy with the purchase.

In some cases, the recipient will even spend more than the gift card allowed, making for what amounts to two purchases at once. There are those that regard giving a gift card as a lazy, thoughtless gift.

But given that gift cards have been on the top of wish lists for the last eight years—according to a report from the Washington Post —it’s hardly lazy or thoughtless to give people exactly what they want. This in turn is likely why Square noted that gift card capabilities have been a frequently-requested item, and so Square—much like holiday gift-givers out there—are giving the merchants exactly what they in turn asked for.

While this might have been better introduced in Canada last November or so, the upcoming Mother’s Day / Father’s Day / Graduation time frame—the “Mom-Dad-Grad gift corridor”, as The Simpsons so cynically put it—should spark up plenty of interest.

Aside from that, of course, there’s always next Christmas, and now businesses will be just a little more ready. Hopefully the card program will expand from there, because with so many wanting gift cards, it’s a gift to retailers to be able to offer them to gift-givers.