Square just announced the launch of Build with Square, which is a new set of APIs being made available to sellers and the developers they work with. There’s a Register API, which enables any iOS point of sale to be customized to process payments with Square, and an ecommerce API, which lets sellers use Square to process online payments on their own self-hosted sites.
A spokesperson for Square tells WebProNews, “With these new set of tools we’re helping sellers of all kinds join the Square ecosystem and run every part of their business in one place. Sellers can now identify what and when customers are purchasing online and in-store all in one place. Now no matter what you sell, or how you sell it, you can sell with Square.”
“Independent businesses have been poorly served by existing commerce solutions, which require them to laboriously piece together hardware, software, and payments services from many different vendors,” the company says in a blog post announcing the news. “From payments to point of sale, financing to payroll, we believe all sellers — big or small, online or offline — should be able to start, run, and grow their entire business with one cohesive system.”
With the Register API, developers can tell Square how much they want to charge a customer and “let Square Register to the heavy lifting” with just two API calls. Customers can pay like they would with any other Square merchant and get text, email, or printed receipts. The API supports all Square hardware, including Square Stand and the Square Contactless + Chip Reader.
Make an API request (see code here), and Square Register comes to the foreground and completes the payment. After that, it will call your app back with the result.
Square developer platform software engineer Jianliang Zhao discusses the ecommerce API and points to documentation here.
Jack Dorsey is pleased with it.
“Now any developer can build solutions for their customers to take payments on a website using Square,” writes Zhao. “Whether you’re getting started selling online with Square’s Online Store; you’re growing through Square’s integrations with eCommerce platforms like Bigcommerce, Weebly, and Ecwid; or now, you’re building a custom website, any business can scale online with Square payments. What’s more, with our eCommerce API, Square takes the hassle out of PCI compliance without interfering with the design or look and feel of your website or re-directing customers off-site.”
He notes that Square’s JavaScript library uses transparent, dynamically styled iframes to accept sensitive cardholder info so this data never touches your web site or servers.
While only the two APIs were announced, it will be interesting to see what else Square enables developers to do in the future under the Build with Square banner.
Images via Square
