Square Handheld is a portable retail POS unit designed for food and beverage sellers, making it easy to accept payments from customers.
The pocketable device weighs 0.34 kgs and is only 1.6 cm thick, making it ideal for quick-service restaurants. It is designed to help businesses cut down on lines during a busy rush, and for full-service restaurants to be able to take orders tableside or from across the bar.
It’s durable, able to withstand water splashes and dust, and can come with an optional case, designed by Belkin, for added protection against accidental drops. The battery can last all day and the unit facilitates both Wi-Fi and offline payments capabilities.
A camera with integrated barcode scanning capabilities also allows food and beverage businesses to take product pictures and quickly scan retail offerings like merch or bottles of wine. By eliminating unnecessary trips between tables and the counter, Square Handheld enables servers to provide more attentive service and turn tables more efficiently during peak hours, says Square.
“Square Handheld has made us dramatically faster,” says Itamar Shani, Owner and Chef at Chickpea Restaurant in Vancouver, B.C. “It’s quick and easy to take orders and payment processing between customer and server is much more pleasant. The device feels durable – it has high quality construction and no corners prone to chipping; it’s definitely built to last.”
Square is also introducing additional new features and expanding its partnership ecosystem to help restaurants streamline and grow their businesses even further. Square’s new Item Splitting feature saves time by making it easier and faster for staff to check out larger groups by reducing time spent calculating totals and waiting on guests to discuss shared costs.
Newly streamlined DoorDash Integration is built for accuracy and efficiency, from order to delivery. Now, sellers can manage menus, pricing, and orders, all within Square, with seamless real-time syncing.
With Scan to Pay QR codes on receipts, customers can scan and settle the bill without having to wait for busy servers to collect payment. That means restaurants can turn tables faster and staff have more time to serve diners.
With Multichannel menu management, Square sellers can now seamlessly edit and update menus across all locations and channels, both online and offline, in one centralized Dashboard.
Pre-authorized bar tabs streamline the checkout experience for customers, providing fast, hassle-free payments, while giving businesses added security against financial loss.
“Square has gone big in restaurants, and it shows, with our product velocity accelerating to include more restaurant-specific tools to help Canadian restaurant and bar owners capture every order, all while freeing up staff to spend more time serving customers,” explains Ming-Tai Huh, Head of Food and Beverage at Square. “Square is the technology backbone for hundreds of thousands of businesses across Canada, from neighbourhood cafés to national chains – and with this latest release, we’re giving single unit and multi-unit restaurants the tools they need to operate efficiently and thrive in today’s dynamic marketplace.”