Square Launches Square KDS in a Move to Gain More Restaurant POS

Square, the point-of-sale and e-commerce unit of Block Inc., is the latest technology provider to turn up the heat in the already hotly competitive restaurant POS market. It announced Tuesday the launch of Square KDS, a kitchen-display system on the Android operating platform, and the debut of Square for Franchises, a POS system for quick-service restaurant franchises.

In addition, Square announced a series of new partnerships aimed at helping boost loyalty and speed sales through drive-thru lanes. Square’s new products and partnerships come about a month after it announced its integration with reservation provider OpenTable, along with enhancements to its Square for Restaurants platform.

Square KDS, which integrates directly with Square Restaurant POS, enables establishments to streamline kitchen workflow by routing tickets based on options such as dine-in or takeout, or by kitchen category. The idea is that kitchen staff can prepare meals and send them where they need to go faster, whether the dining room or for takeout.

“Our tickets come in instantly for prepping orders and marking items as complete. It’s great to have that two-way ticket interaction that paper receipts can’t offer,” Rosa Thurnher, co-owner of El Ponce, a Mexican restaurant in Atlanta, says in a statement.

Square KDS on Android is available on the Google Play store. Square is offering a 30-day free trial with Square for Restaurants.

Square for Franchises enables franchisors to manage multiple locations using a dashboard that provides a comprehensive view of store performance and control over unique menu options, as well as gift card and loyalty programs. Square for Franchises is the latest evolution of GoParrot, a digital ordering and marketing platform for restaurants Square acquired in May 2022.

Square says it has also partnered with Paytronix, a provider of loyalty programs for restaurants, as well as Flash Order, a digital-ordering platform, and Soundhound AI Inc., an audio and speech recognition company. The partnership with Paytronix will allow restaurants to gather customer data that can be used to create personalized offers for customers. The links with Flash Order and Soundhound will provide quick-service restaurants with tools to speed processing of orders placed at the drive-thru.

In the past year, Square has grown the gross market payment value for its upmarket food-and-beverage business 47%, the company says. An upmarket seller generates more than $500,000 in annualized gross payment value, according to Square. In addition, the number of paying subscribers using its restaurant platform grew 38% during the same period. Square defines paying subscribers as sellers that subscribe to either Square for Restaurants Plus or Premium.

Sellers that use Square for Restaurants use about four other Square products, while upmarket sellers on Square for Restaurants use about six additional products from the Square ecosystem, according to the company.