Square Targets Small Businesses With Market Update

By Ben Carsley (@BC_PYMNTS)

Square took another step towards becoming a tool for eCommerce empowerment late last week, launching “market item embedding” to its Square Market platform.

The idea behind the item embedding is simple: some businesses are so small that they don’t want or need to manage entire eCommerce sites, but still want the ability to sell items online. Item embedding lets these businesses – or individuals – accomplish this goal via blog, website or Tumblr feed by simply copying and pasting some HTML code.

To generate this code, users simply click the “<>” icon found next to the options to share items via Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest or email. They can generate previews of what there embedded items will look like on a page, then add to whichever supported platform they choose.

“While sites like Twitter and Facebook generate a ton of traffic and many people have strong followings there, we also know that people like to run their own websites, blogs and Tumblrs where they can go into more depth and focus on what’s most important to them,” a blog post from Square reads. “We’ve heard from both merchants and Square Market visitors that they’d like to share items on these sites too.”

According to the post, those with some HTML, CSS and JavaScript skills can also build out a “full embedded storefront,” and Square included several samples with its item embed rollout.

In order to embed and sell items, users need to have accounts with Square Market, which the payments company launched two months ago. But once they’re set up there, this represents a way for sellers to get to market online quickly and easily, and nets Square more transactions, which is of course its ultimate goal.