Square officially launches its Register software platform worldwide

Square has today announced that its point-of-sale (POS) software Square Register is now available globally, having previously been restricted to users in the US, Canada and Japan.

Announced at The Financial Times’ ‘The 125 Annual Flagship’ event today, businesses around the world can now start signing up for the service. Although it’s currently only offered in English, French, Spanish and Japanese, it does support up to 130 different currencies, the company said.

In a nutshell, Square Register aims to provide an easily set-up POS system and tie it up with tools that provide analytics to help a business better understand its sales.

The platform also offers digital receipts and supports a range of hardware for different types of businesses – whether that’s printers for those receipts, cash drawers or code scanners. Customers can also extend the core functionality of the platform by using integrated apps from the Square App Marketplace.

However, it’s worth noting that this launch is software-only, meaning that it’s not currently offering the payment processing part of its services to businesses outside the US, Canada and Japan. It’s a reasonably safe bet to assume that this could be offered more widely though. So, for example, a company could use iZettle’s card reader and payment processing services, and then us the free Square Register platform for receipts and analytics.

Earlier this month, Square introduced pre-orders for its new $29 chip card reader – which are far more commonly used than magnetic strip cards in Europe, versus the US. The chip card reader is due to start shipping early next year.

News of the launch leaked last night when the iOS and Android apps were spotted on the App Store and Google Play, but it’s good to have official confirmation of the move.

It’s less likely to please other big European payment processors like Payleven and iZettle though; as a notable US company in the space, it must be a concern to see Square expanding into Europe for both companies, even if it isn’t yet processing payments.

➤ Square Register | Android | iOS