Square reveals Australian growth figures, is serving 60,000 local businesses

Payments company Square has revealed some figures around its growth in Australia since the local launch of its card reader last year, stating that over 60,000 businesses are using one or more of its products.

Its suite of products includes the Square Reader, payment APIs, Square Invoices, and an employee management tool.

The company, which opened an office in Melbourne in late 2015, stated that it is seeing an average weekly growth of 13 percent in transactions processed with Square across its product range. Within that, it is recording 10 percent weekly average growth in invoices paid online with Square and over 20 percent weekly average growth in ecommerce transactions processed through its APIs.

Ben Pfisterer, Square’s Australia country manager, said, “Australia’s 2.2 million small to medium-sized businesses are critical to productivity, creating jobs and helping to grow our economy.

“We’re proud to be building a powerful and accessible point of sale and payments ecosystem that enables over 60,000 Australian sellers to leverage one or more of our world-class products to grow their businesses.”

The company reported particularly strong growth in Tasmania and Western Australia, where it is growing at an “above average rate”; both states have recorded over 100 percent quarterly average growth in new sellers.

Square’s target market has traditionally been sole traders and micro and small businesses, with over 80 percent of sellers on Square not accepting card payments through a traditional payment terminal prior to using Square.

However, Square is also seeing a “strong push upmarket” facilitated by the launch of new features such as employee and location management, allowing employers to clock in and out and managers to see transactions processed by each employee to better schedule employees.

Also recently released was a virtual terminal, allowing users to key in card details via their browser and send a personalised digital receipt to customers, while its payment APIs and integrations with 25 partners, including ecommerce partners such as BigCommerce and WooCommerce, have also opened up another market.

While Square launched in the UK just this past March, Australia has been an advanced market for the company since it arrived. Australia was the second launch market for its Build with Square APIs, introduced locally earlier this year, and the Square contactless card reader, introduced last September.

Pfisterer previously told Startup Daily, “[Australia is] seen as a really advanced market not only from a small business perspective…we know Australian businesses are some of the most tech-savvy there are with a great uptake of new tech, cloud-based systems, but also from a payments innovation perspective.”

Among the products that have not yet made the move down under, however, are Square Payroll and Square Capital, a small business lending service.

Square is due to report its earnings for the first quarter of 2017 later this month. It reported earnings of US$452 million for the last quarter of 2016, surpassing the expected US$450 million.

The company also last month agreed to hire several employees from shuttering social networking startup Yik Yak and acquire a non-exclusive license to some of its intellectual property for US$1 million.

Image: Ben Pfisterer. Source: Supplied.