Invoicing products strengthen Square's software growth (SQ)

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In a company blog post Thursday, Square announced several encouraging updates regarding Square Invoices, the firm’s digital invoicing platform for merchants, in a company blog post Thursday.

The announcement comes following multiple quarters of strong growth in the firm's software and data segment. 

Square has decided to diversify its invoice offerings, which have enjoyed quick uptake so far. 

• Square Invoices has processed a cumulative $2 billion in invoices since launch. The platform collected over 100,000 active sellers in its first year-and-a-half, and the number of sellers using the product has more than doubled over the past year. That makes Invoices one of Square’s fastest-growing services, according to Fortune. Square has added additional features, like register and customer directory integration, to Square Invoicing, and expanded the product to three countries outside the US. This allows Square to offer some of its largest merchant segments — like retail, the second-highest user of invoicing platforms — additional services and draw them further into the Square ecosystem, which could increase loyalty.
• Strong performance likely led the company to add a new invoicing product to its lineup. In order to double down on those gains, Square announced the launch of Scheduled Invoices, which allows merchants to schedule invoices and decide when they want customers to receive them. That added flexibility could help merchants run their businesses more effectively, which ultimately helps Square build a more durable client base.

This could be a valuable tool to help Square accelerate growth in its Software and Data Services segment. It’s becoming more common for mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) firms to offer increased business management software in order to keep clients loyal in a market where there’s relatively little friction associated with switching providers.

Square offers evidence that this strategy can pay off — its software and data revenue nearly tripled year-over-year (YoY) to $24 million in Q1 2016. 

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