Square launches ecommerce play ‘Square Market’ to take on eBay, Etsy

Square is best known for building the small, white plastic cube that can read credit cards when plugged into a smartphone or tablet, but now it looks like the company’s ready to move beyond that with the launch of its ecommerce play.

The digital marketplace, called “Square Market“, is meant to be somewhere that people can go to find local businesses who want to sell their products anywhere in the US, meaning that Square is poised to take on the likes of Etsy, Amazon, and eBay.

As The Next Web points out, the marketplace is different to the company’s directory, which helps people find physical stores that use the card reader.

In fact, rather than a traditional online marketplace, Square Market can be seen as an even easier way for small businesses to set up a storefront than the various ecommerce plugins offered for platforms like WordPress. Creating a storefront is free and sellers can manage list items, add product photos, manage inventory and set up an online profile. The eventual hope, apparently, is that Square Market will completely eliminate the need for a standalone site.

Given Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s heavy involvement in Square, it’s hardly surprising that people using the market will be able to send out an automatic tweet every time they post a new item for sale.

“Creating an online marketplace is our next step in making commerce easy for everyone,” said Ajit Varma, Square’s director of discovery, in a statement.

It’s unclear if (or more likely when) Square will roll out Square Market to the rest of the world, although if the way it’s moved the hardware into new markets is anything to go by, the approach will likely be slow and measured.