Block's Square Introduces New Features for Sellers

Block’s merchant business, Square, has launched new features for sellers, among which include customizable website themes and a product description tool powered by artificial intelligence. These features were announced on Tuesday by the company.

Deferred Payment Accounts and More

Another significant enhancement is the introduction of deferred payment accounts. This feature allows a business owner’s regular customers and corporate clients to charge purchases to the account. When the merchant is ready to settle the outstanding balance, they can issue an invoice and collect payment online via various methods, such as credit card or automated clearinghouse payment.

Square has also introduced tools and services related to fulfillment, inventory management, and customer engagement and retention.

Leadership Changes and Outage Issues

These feature updates come at a time when Square, a company that primarily serves small and medium-sized businesses, is about to undergo a leadership change. Alyssa Henry, the current CEO of Square, is set to leave the company on October 2, with co-founder Jack Dorsey taking over.

This leadership news followed shortly after Square experienced a two-day outage that left sellers unable to process consumer payments or access their accounts. The company has since apologized for the inconvenience caused.

Square’s Business Strategy

Square has also adjusted its pricing strategy, raising prices for some of its services, including the monthly prices for its online seller plans. This is part of the company’s efforts to cater to larger merchant clients to drive growth.

The business has also revamped its sales approach in response to increased competition in the point-of-sale market. This includes organizing its sales staff by industry to have dedicated teams focused on retail, restaurant, and services, and adding salespeople seeking out new clients.

Expansion of Services

Earlier this year, Square introduced several new tools, including one that allows merchants to offer waitlists for appointment windows and another related to subscriptions that enables consumers to subscribe for services or products. The company also expanded certain services into Japan, Canada, France, Ireland, Spain, and Australia.

As the company continues to expand its merchant offerings, Block CFO Amrita Ahuja stated that they are not solely focused on telling a payments story, indicating a broader vision for the company’s future.