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Square Company Case
Course Code + Name
Instructor
Date
Name and Student’s ID
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Memo
To: Jim Mckelvey
From: Student
Date: 10/25/2023
Subject: Evaluation of Square’s payment platforms evolution in the microenvironment
Recommendations: Square must continue innovating and revolutionizing the microenvironment
to compete effectively with other players.
Short-term: Six months to one year
1). Learn of the weaknesses of the square terminal in the microenvironments
2). Learn of the forces in the microenvironment that drive the market for payment systems
3). Market the Square Terminal to the microenvironment to attract more customers
Medium/Long-term: Three years
1). Continuously learn and exploit the potential of the Square Terminal payment system
2). Improve the designs of terminal payment to include new capabilities such as handling the
payroll, giving out loans to customers, handling appointments, and generally improving
connections within the microenvironment.
3). Develop marketing strategies that will allow the terminal to compete with PayPal and other
similar platforms to improve market share within the microenvironment.
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4). Form partnerships and collaborate with major players in the microenvironment to increase the
market worthiness of the square products.
Control and Feedback
Learn from the square register, and Square stands weakness and how customers respond to it.
Leverage feedback from customers to learn what is needed in the new platforms. This should be
done through an open and anonymous feedback platform, allowing customers to freely air their
concerns and raise new ideas on how the terminal should be designed and improved to serve the
right purpose. Measure the performance of the square terminal new designs and improvements to
determine the progress.
Contingency Plan
If the terminal market and the number of transactions remain the same, Square should design and
create a new application with newer but better features, which will urge customers to try it out,
thus winning a larger market.
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Square -Executive Summary
By: Student’s Name
Jim McKelvey started Square after losing a sale due to a lack of credit card payment options
during an art fair, which inspired him to solve the problem. The Square payment system started
to fill the gap in credit and debit card payment systems, which had locked out most small and
medium businesses. The solution was square, providing a fair fee for transactions and allowing
SMBs to use the payment platform without the hassle of many processes and complexities.
Despite establishing a terminal payment platform with much potential, the platform has only
managed to tap into a small market.
Problem Statement: Evaluation of Square’s payment platform evolution in the
microenvironment
Recommendations/ Implementation
Short-Term-Six Months to One Year
Learn the weakness of square terminal within the microenvironment. Although the market has
embraced the platform, the limited number of customers on the platform may indicate that there
are still weaknesses that may need some improvement.
Learn the forces of the microenvironment that drive the market to payment systems. From the
case, a gap existed because of the long and expensive processes when registering for credit card
payments. However, this may not be the only force driving the market, and thus, research should
be done to identify other forces that control the market to get more customers to use terminal
payment platforms.
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Market the Square terminal to microenvironment to attract more customers. Although the
platform attracts a significant income, compared with industry incomes, the income is still low.
This may be due to the limited marketing efforts, which should be improved to get more people
using the terminal platform for transactions, resulting in more revenues.
Medium/Long Term- Three Years
Continuous learning and exploiting any potential discovered in the square terminal platform.
This is aimed at ensuring that the competitiveness of the platform is intact while the platform is
evolving to attract more customers.
Improve terminal designs and include mor capabilities such as handling payrolls, offering loans
to customers, making appointments, and enhancing the connections with the microenvironment.
This will increase the relevance of the platform to businesses, thus resulting in more business.
Develop a unique market strategy for the business. Although the current marketing approach can
be used in the short run, a better and strong, long-lasting marketing strategy should be developed
to enable the company to reach more people. For instance, use a social media platform to contact
customers.
Form partnerships and collaborate with major players in the industry similar to Visa and master
card payment systems to ensure that the business has a larger market base and can accept as
many payment options as possible.
Control and Feedback
Leverage feedback to learn more about customers. Use the social media platform created for the
company to interact with customers frequently, which will allow them to give feedback to the
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company on the performance of the terminal and other square payment platforms. Also, allow for
anonymous feedback to allow for critical comments, enabling Square to discover any challenges
with the platforms and improve on them.
Contingency
If the market and transactions for terminal and other existing square payment platforms do not
grow, design and develop a new payment platform while integrating all the needs identified by
customers to attract a new and large market.