Kinks in Square's User Experience
There's a new video out today walking through more details about Square. Quick recap of what we know now:
- Cost: Dorsey hopes to give away the devices for free. I wonder if that's the just the first device or all devices. Since it's so small I could imagine them being easy to lose.
- Revenue Stream: Transaction fee-based. Sounds like it's a charge on top of Interchange. I don't disagree with the approach, but merchants are already displeased with Interchange rates as is. Will be interesting to see how willing they will be to accept additional charges.
- Launch date: Anticipated in March 2010
Some observations from the videos posted below:
- "That was a LOT for a $3 transaction" - Not sure what the CNBC commentator's name was, but he's right. Watching the process in both videos seems like a lot of steps. While most card transactions have most of these steps, you don't see email entering or signing for low-dollar amounts much (or ever) these days. These elements are speed bumps where no speed bumps should be. The result is a slower transaction rate. In fact, in the second video at the coffeeshop, you can clearly see a cash transaction moving by at rocket speed in the background. Speed is important in retail transactions, particularly retail card transactions.
- Can you email the receipt to me? OK, sure, just enter your email address. Really . . . my whole email address? - In my post about the Coke Freestyle, I mentioned stage fright. When there are people in line behind me and I need to enter my email address, which has 24 characters in it, this could be a huge bottleneck. Speed and ease of use are the reasons people use cards over cash. In fact, it's been the subject of a memorable Visa Check Card marketing campaign. While everyone likes to be green, people like speed and ease of use more. The SMS option they provide is better as it's just a phone number you need to enter, and of course the super easy alternative here is to simply provide no receipt. If the latter is not an option, it should be. Another neat option would be to "bump" the receipt to the person's iPhone/Droid but then you've just made the person fish for their phone in their pocket, at which point I'd rather just use my phone to pay via NFC.
- Lots of handing the iPhone back and forth - Not sure how this handing an iPhone back and forth is going to play out in a busy restaurant/venue with people juggling a paper, a coffee, a muffin, and your store's credit card acceptance device (which happens to be your personal phone also). Hypercom terminals don't break often because they just sit there on the counter all day. Lots of handing back and forth would seem to increase accidents. Perhaps Square (or someone else) should consider creating a docking station for the iPhone for this type of environment? Something that would allow this exchange to take place more easily.
- Sign with your finger . . . for $3 dollars? - Expectations these days are that low-dollar transactions will not require a signature. In fact, as almost a card-exclusive purchaser (I don't carry cash) I am always taken a little off guard when I have to sign for anything under about $15. I wouldn't want to have to sign for a $3 dollar transaction. I would imagine this is something that Square would provide as a setting for merchants.
All of these things are fixable so I still remain very interested and optimistic about Square's future. It will be neat to see how that plays out. Anyway, here are the videos of Square in action:
