Square SWOT & PESTLE Analysis
COMPANY PROFILE -Square
Business Sector :Payments, Banking and Financial Services
Operating Geography :United States, North America, Global
About Square :
Square was started in February 2009 to enable businesses (sellers) to accept card payments. Square is a cohesive commerce ecosystem that helps sellers start, run, and grow their businesses. It combines sophisticated software with affordable hardware to provide sellers powerful payment and point-of-sale solutions. It achieves high seller acceptance rates and fast onboarding, while maintaining low risk and fraud losses as a result of our approach to risk management that emphasizes data science and machine learning. We focus on technology and design to create products and services that are cohesive, fast, self-serve, and elegant. These attributes differentiate Square in a fragmented industry that forces sellers to stitch together hardware, software, and payments services from multiple vendors.The foundation of its ecosystem is a full service, managed payments offering. Sellers can onboard to Square in minutes and, once onboarded, accept payments in person via swipe, dip, or tap of a card or online via a stored card on file or payment entry form. Sellers pay a transparent transaction fee which includes next-day settlements (or instant settlement for an additional fee via Instant Deposit), payment dispute management, data security, and PCI compliance. As of Jan 2019, Square had over 3,300 full-time employees.
Square Revenue :
US $ 3,298.2 million - FY ending 30th Dec 2018
US $ 2,214.3 million - FY ending 30th Dec 2017
Competitive Analysis of Square
1. Broad portfolio of payments related products and services 2. Rapid growth with global customer base 3. Strong fraud detection capabilities for merchants 4. Providing powerful reporting and analytics features through dashboard 5. Strong brand and Net Promoter Score (NPS) | 1. Reporting losses for several consecutive quarters 2. Heavy dependency on revenue from managed payments services 3. Dependent on payment card networks and acquiring processors |
1. Opportunities in financing business | 1. Competitive and evolving markets 2. Government promoted digital payment platforms 3. Performance strongly correlated to the economy 4. Prolonged Brexit process increasing uncertainty |
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Detailed SWOT Analysis of Square
Strength
1. Broad portfolio of payments related products and services: Square’s payment ecosystem is an all in one payments service with several managed offerings. Accessing Square’s service platform is both quick and easy, allowing sellers to be onboard the system Rapidly. Once that is achieved, they can then accept payments via a stored card, online or by swiping, dipping, or tapping a card. The company’s services are affordable as well as equipped with custom-designed hardware that is able to process all major card payment forms, including magnetic stripe, EMV chip, and NFC. Other services offered include a suite of integrated, cloud-based software solutions which sellers can access to better manage their business. Tools on offer like APIs (application programming interfaces) and SDKs (software development kits) allow third-party developers to combine the Square payment system with their apps, websites, and/or back office systems. Square also caters to the needs of restaurants through its food ordering platform, Caviar by offering a differentiated way to service the food and beverage vertical and allowing them to grow. Square Capital, which deals in financing through a partnership with an industrial bank, allows Square customers to get loans dependent on current payment and point-of-sale data.
2. Rapid growth with global customer base: Square’s customer profile is wide with millions of seller customers scattered all over the globe. These customers range right from small farmer’s market sellers to multi-location businesses in United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Square has been able to sustain continuous growth mainly due to its capability to easily add new sellers to its network and help them grow. Square’s Gross Payment Volume (GPV) amounted to revenues of $84.7 billion in 2018, achieved through 1.8 billion card payments transacted via 342 million payment cards. This was significantly higher than the $65.3 billion and $49.7 billion of GPV processed in 2017 and 2016 respectively.
3. Strong fraud detection capabilities for merchants: Square claims that its fraud prediction system is far better than that of its peers, as it uses its transaction data for the purpose. Payments to merchants can be completed with far shorter waiting times, generally the next day as compared to the several days required for a typical credit card transaction. This ability also allows Square to approve new merchants instantly, allowing them to accept payments as soon as they activate the Square device. This fraud prediction innovation has enabled Square to gain a significant advantage over its competitors.
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Weakness
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Opportunity
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Threat
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Major Competitors :
- Intuit
- Clover
- ShopKeep
- Shopify
- PayPal Here
Major Brands :
- Square
- Weebly
- Cash App
- Square Register
- Square Stand
- Square Terminal
Key Business Segments / Diversification :
Recent Acquisition / Mergers / Alliance / Joint Ventures / Divestitures :
Open Table PreviewFraedom | Banking and Finance | 2018 | Acquisition | Faredom, acquired for $195 helped Visa Increase global footprint, get lot of clients on board, get more businesses (170000+ organizations) |
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References used in Square Analysis Report
1. Square Financials 2018 - https://s21.q4cdn.com/114365585/files/doc_financials/2018/2018-Q1-10Q-Square.pdf
2. Square Annual report 2017 - http://www.squarepharma.com.bd/SPL_AR_17-min.pdf
3. Square Investor Relations Overview 2019 - https://d1g145x70srn7h.cloudfront.net/documents/investor-relations/presentations/2019-02-overview.pdf
4. Square company website - https://squareup.com/us/en
The detailed complete set of references are available on request in the 'Complete report' on purchase.
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Square SWOT & PESTLE Analysis - SWOT & PESTLE.COM
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Square SWOT and PESTLE analysis has been conducted and reviewed by senior analysts from Barakaat Consulting.
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