A restless company always seeking to build its "ecosystem" of offerings for merchants, Square (NYSE: SQ) is rolling out a new suite of inventory management functionalities. This set of programs allows the company's Square for Retail point-of-sale clients to utilize such inventory tracking features as Easy Item Create and Smart Stock Alerts.
"For retailers, access to real-time insights into what products are available, when, and where, is key as businesses look to expand their sales channels," Square wrote accurately in the press release.
Image source: Square.
"Many sellers view inventory as one of the most frustrating and difficult tasks they encounter because building out a product catalog, counting inventory, and keeping stock at the right levels is traditionally a manual and labor-intensive process," the company added.
Square's impetus for the new offering doesn't come from pure altruism, of course. It's part of a years-long and continuing effort to win clientele and keep the company's services "sticky" in order for customers to continue using those services. After all, there are numerous point-of-sale hardware solutions and services on the market; the wider a product ecosystem, the more attractive the provider.
The company continues to grow at an admirable pace, and those apps and functionalities are helping it do so. In 2020, Square more than doubled its revenue on a year-over-year basis and was profitable for the second year in a row. Such performance has made it an extremely popular fintech title among investors.
Square essentially traded flat Thursday, an indication that perhaps the market is getting used to these announcements of new product modules. The S&P 500 index, meanwhile, sagged by 0.9% on the day.
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