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April 24, 2024

On the wires

September 27, 2023

On the web

September 26, 2023

On the web

Square Unveils Over a Dozen New Features to Help Businesses Win this Holiday Season

Block

"Square announced a new suite of solutions designed to give sellers a competitive edge this holiday selling period ...Square is introducing House Accounts, a deferred payment account that business regulars and corporate clients can easily charge purchases to. When a seller is ready to settle up, they can quickly create an invoice for the outstanding balance and receive payment online via credit card, ACH payment, or Card on File. ."

September 20, 2023

On the web

September 13, 2023

On the web

Square Says Daylong Outage Caused by DNS Error

Yahoo News

"Square said there was "no evidence" a cyberattack caused an outage that left customers and small businesses unable to use the payment giant's technology on Thursday through early-Friday. The payments technology giant said in a post-mortem of the daylong outage that the outage was caused by a DNS issue."

September 11, 2023

On the web

Square’s Outages Will Have Global Impact

Electronic Payments International

"As many frustrated business owners will know, Square suffered global outages last week across its service. On Thursday, Square had over 18,000 outage reports, with Cash App, also owned by Square, having 9,000 reports, with problems running into the following day. Square will see a global impact in the fallout of these outages, with the company currently operating in Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Japan, Spain, UK and USA"

September 8, 2023

On the web

Square Says it has Resolved Day-Long Outage

Yahoo News

"Fintech giant Square says its services are coming back online after a day-long outage left small business owners unable to process payments...In a new posting on its status update page, Square says that it is “actively observing the recovery of all Square systems” after engineers implemented a fix early on Friday. The company noted...it anticipates "slight delays" for some transfers as a result of the disruption."

August 29, 2023

On the web

August 9, 2023

On the web

August 8, 2023

On the web

June 28, 2023

On the web

June 27, 2023

On the web

June 9, 2023

On the web

On the wires

April 26, 2023

On the web

Klaviyo Announces Integration with Square to Help Businesses Drive More Sales

Klaviyo

"Klaviyo, a marketing automation and customer data platform for B2C businesses, today announced a new integration with Square Online – Square’s ecommerce platform that helps sellers more easily run and grow their businesses. With this new integration, sellers can quickly sync real-time and historical data from Square Online into Klaviyo, including event-level data, profile properties, and catalog information and utilize that to deliver truly personalized experiences across their marketing channels, including email and SMS. For businesses using Square Point of Sale, Klaviyo will also receive customer purchase data made through in-person locations to help connect offline and online interactions."

April 21, 2023

On the web

April 19, 2023

On the web

Square Software Turns Android Devices Into Powerful Payment Technology

Block

"Square today launched Tap to Pay on Android for sellers in the UK. The new technology empowers sellers to securely accept contactless payments with a compatible Android device, and at no additional cost. With Tap to Pay on Android, Square is making it even easier for new sellers and established businesses to conduct in-person commerce. Using a compatible Android device, a seller simply opens the Square Point of Sale, Square Appointments, Square for Restaurants, or Square Invoices app, enters the sale, and presents their smartphone to the customer. From there, the buyer will see the total they owe along with the familiar contactless payments symbol, and can choose to complete the payment with a contactless credit or debit card, or a digital wallet such as Google Pay."

April 12, 2023

On the web

Square Launches Nearly 100 New Features to Help Sellers Diversify Revenue Streams and Automate Operations

Square

"Today, Square unveiled an integrated spring product release, introducing a bevy of new features across our entire product ecosystem to unlock growth and create resilience for any type and size of business. “Square has more than 35 integrated tools, and they’re all designed to help sellers work smarter by automating their operations and creating new revenue streams,” said Alyssa Henry, CEO of Square."

March 2, 2023

On the web

Square Policy and Pricing Updates

Square

"Beginning next month, three new pricing changes are going into effect for Square sellers: updates to our refund policy, changes to paid transfers pricing, and new pricing for our revamped Square Online paid plans."

December 15, 2022

On the wires

Prizeout Expands Brand Offerings with Launch on Square App Marketplace

GlobeNewswire News Room

“Prizeout Corp., an innovative adtech company that works to turn withdrawals into a growth solution for eCommerce and retail businesses, has announced its integration with Square, the globally trusted software and hardware and payments company. As part of the Square App Marketplace, Prizeout’s integration works seamlessly across all stores running a Square Online site. Square sellers can connect their Square account to Prizeout and seamlessly turn their eGift cards into an invaluable tool to spur customer growth and retention. Participating Square sellers can create a campaign directly from the Prizeout Dashboard, allowing them to customize their demographic targeting and develop efforts to fit their marketing goals. Within these campaigns, they can offer bonus incentives to targeted user segments as they see fit.”

November 16, 2022

On the wires

American Express and Square Partner to Create First Credit Card for Square Sellers

Businesswire

“American Express and Square announced an expansion of their relationship and plans to launch a new credit card built specifically for Square sellers on the American Express network. The new card will be the first credit card Square offers to its community of small business owners in the U.S. It will integrate directly with Square’s broader ecosystem of solutions, empowering sellers to organize their finances and manage their cash flow from the same platform they use to run their business.”

September 27, 2022

On the web

Visa and Square Deliver Faster Transfers to Canadian Businesses

Newswire

“Visa, one of the world’s leaders in digital payments, has announced its participation in the Canadian expansion of instant transfers, Square’s solution for rapid merchant settlement. Square’s instant transfers are enabled by Visa Direct, a VisaNet processing capability helping transform global money movement and enables real-time2 funds delivery directly to financial accounts using eligible card credentials.” Square’s instant transfers allow businesses to access their funds quicker than the next business day, typically the current default setting for Canadian businesses. With instant transfers, Square merchants can link an eligible debit card and start transferring funds instantly to an external bank account with the click of a button.”

August 23, 2022

On the web

Square Sellers Across the UK Can Now Offer Buy Now, Pay Later Through Clearpay

GlobeNewswire News Room

“Today, Square launches its first integration with Clearpay in the UK, providing “Buy Now, Pay Later” (BNPL) functionality to sellers across online and in-person commerce. This marks another key milestone in the global integration of Clearpay (known as Afterpay outside the UK and Europe) following the acquisition of Afterpay by Block, as the UK will be the first market to launch BNPL available across all platforms at the same time, including in-store, online and can also be integrated by Square’s developers and partners.”

June 2, 2022

On the web

Square’s Payment App Will Support Tap to Pay on iPhone Later in 2022

AppleInsider

“Square has announced that it will bring Tap to Pay on iPhone support to its existing point of sale app, allowing users to receive contactless payments without any additional hardware.   The feature, which Apple announced in February, essentially allows users to turn an iPhone into a contactless payment terminal. Now, Square says it’s bringing support for the feature to its iOS app. Square says that the new feature will launch later in 2022, but it is debuting an early access program for select merchants starting Tuesday.  At launch, Apple said that Stripe would be an early partner adopting Tap to Pay on iPhone when it’s widely launched.”

May 23, 2022

On the web

How Jack Dorsey’s Cash App Plans to Become a Super App

Charged

“Jack Dorsey’s Cash App plans to be come a super app in order to rival PayPal as it aggressively integrates its buy now, pay later (BNPL) subsidiary Afterpay. Block, formerly Square, executives outlined the plan to investors at an event on Wednesday. The plans involved fully integrating buy now, pay later provider Afterpay into the company’s “ecosystem of ecosystems” and greatly expand Cash App’s capabilities as it races against other payments providers to become a super app, according to Business Insider. Cash App’s co-creator Brian Grassadonia, wanted to expand the app’s shopping and discovery features, alongside Afterpay cofounders Nick Molnar and Anthony Eisen.”

May 18, 2022

On the web

Square Acquires GoParrot to Offer Advanced Capabilities for Restaurants

Square

“Square has acquired GoParrot, an all-in-one digital ordering and marketing platform for restaurants. GoParrot enables restaurants to connect more easily and directly with customers through powerful omnichannel software. As a long-time Square partner, GoParrot’s products already integrate with Square’s ecosystem of solutions. With GoParrot, Square sellers can offer an exceptional customer experience with a customizable white-label app that merchants can design to be unique to their brand. Through the app, buyers can seamlessly place orders while also viewing top selling items and deal popups for enhanced personalization. Restaurants can also increase buyer retention by offering consumers an easy way to track loyalty rewards right from their mobile device.”

May 17, 2022

On the wires

Square Expands Afterpay Integration to In-Person Points of Sale

“Today, Square marks another key milestone in its integration of Afterpay, extending buy now, pay later (BNPL) functionality to its millions of in-person sellers in the United States and Australia. Just three months after first bringing Afterpay into the Square ecosystem with e-commerce integration, Square and Afterpay moved swiftly to unlock the ability for sellers using any Square point of sale software – Square Point of Sale, Square for Retail, Square Appointments, or Square for Restaurants – to now offer Afterpay across online and in-person commerce.”

April 29, 2022

On the web

Launch of Square Loans Offers Quick, Simple Access to Funds for Canadian Businesses

Businesswire

“Today, Square announced the launch of Square Loans in Canada, giving small businesses quick and simple access to funds and eliminating another major pain point associated with running a business.  By using transaction data, Square Loans proactively surfaces customized offers to eligible sellers, providing them with a straightforward application process, where no paperwork is needed, and delivering funds as soon as the next business day. Businesses have one clear, upfront loan fee, which is automatically paid back as a set percentage of daily card sales with Square — so sellers pay back more when sales are strong and less during slower times. The loan fee never increases for the seller, so the amount they owe is always clear.”

April 5, 2022

On the web

Block Says Ex-Worker Downloaded Cash App Customer Data – Law360

law360

“Financial technology giant Block Inc. disclosed in a securities filing Monday that a former employee downloaded brokerage account information from its subsidiary Cash App without permission, saying it had notified 8.2 million customers about the security incident. Block said the information included names, brokerage account numbers — which are associated with a user’s stock activity on Cash App Investing — and, for some, brokerage portfolio value, brokerage portfolio holdings and stock trading activity for one trading day.”

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