Square Launches an Inventory Management System for Restaurants

Square, Block Inc.’s point-of-sale payments unit, has partnered with AI-based restaurant-technology platform provider MarketMan to launch an inventory-management application for restaurants.

The AI-based application provides restaurants with real-time visibility into ingredient usage, tracks inventory levels, automates purchase orders, and helps restaurants better manage their relationships with suppliers to reduce waste and identify loss trends across multiple locations earlier, Square says.

Restaurants can use the application to forecast ingredient needs based on historical and live demand, identify unusual cost increases or margin erosion, model ingredient substitutions to protect profitability, and evaluate how ingredient price changes will impact margins at menu-item level before margins are impacted, according to Square.

The ability to track ingredient usage and inventory in real time can also help restaurants better manage their menus by notifying customers what items are available and which ones have sold out when before orders are placed, Square adds.

Restaurant-management applications are increasingly drawing the attention of processors such as Square, as they represent an opportunity to expand their business into a market that has operational needs beyond straight payment processing.

The POS business in restaurants has grown hotly competitive in recent years, leading payments players to seek out related services as an edge. “There are a lot of specialized needs for restaurants beyond payments that tie into point-of-sale systems, such as inventory management,” says Cliff Gray, principal for Gray Consulting. “Being able to match orders to inventory is one [of those needs].”  

Now, the launch of Square’s inventory-management app for restaurants positions the processor to compete with rivals that have also established broad beachheads in the the same technology space, such as Shift4 Payments Inc. “If anyone can shift the restaurant management space, its Square,” Gray says. “Whatever they do in this space, you know they will be thorough.”

Square’s restaurant applications are available in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Spain, and Australia.