Square Discontinuing Order App

Just about a year ago Square pulled its consumer facing digital wallet – Square Wallet – in favor of a new app called Order. Order allowed consumers to place their coffee order (and purchase it) from their smart phone.

“We’ve spoken with our sellers, and after careful consideration we’ve decided to retire the Square Order app. We are focusing our efforts on other tools and marketing services that help sellers grow their business, like online ordering, gift cards, or delivery with Caviar,” a spokesperson told Endgadget. Though we are retiring Order as a standalone app, customers will still be able to order items for pickup at their favorite local businesses by using the Square Online Store.”

Though the app was billed as a replacement for the digital wallet, it never really caught on with consumers and never made it out of the pilot phase in New York and San Francisco.  The service night have also been limited by the fact that it was only available at a single coffee chain, and that that chain wasn’t Starbucks.  Blue Bottle Coffee shops were the only ones (in those select cities) that were accepting Square Order.

Apart from failing to gain a major consumer following, the app also failed to sync up nicely with Square’s core business of helping small businesses.  Though mainly focused on merchant services – most notably allowing them to easily take credit cards – the company has made some forays into consumer facing applications – Square Cash, for example, allows users to make P2P funds transfers via mobile phones.

That service, however, compliments Square Cash Capital which was launched last year.  That business facing service offers business owners a one-time cash advance in return of a cut of future sales.