• Let's Talk Payments, Thursday, July 2, 2015 12:30 PM

In a move to diversify its business, Silicon Valley-based payments and financial services company Square Inc. has added payroll services for small businesses to its roster of products. Founded in 2009, Square markets software/hardware products & services like the Square Register and Square Reader. The Square Reader is a small plastic device which plugs into a smartphone or tablet and reads magnetic stripes. It then uses the Square Register app service which allows individuals and merchants in the United States, Canada and Japan to accept card payments on their smartphones or tablet computers. On the iPad version of the Square Register app, the interface resembles a traditional cash register. In the past Square has constantly looked at adding more value-added services to its portfolio, so as to keep its head above waters. It launched a scheduling and booking system, email marketing tools and a small business loan programme, the Square Capital last year.In addition to these, it has scheduling, inventory management and invoicing in its basket of reasonably-priced products aimed at the small-business segment. It even bought food delivery service Caviar and then another startup Fastbite to compete in the local food delivery service segment with a service called Caviar for customers in San Francisco.

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