6 Must-Have Square Products for Street Traders at Notting Hill Carnival

Notting Hill Carnival is back again this year, with festivities hitting the Notting Hill and Kensington areas on the August bank holiday weekend (27th-28th). Widely considered one of Europe’s biggest street festivals, the event is a cultural staple on the London calendar with dancers, singers, tourists and locals all flocking to join in the parade. This makes it a huge opportunity for business owners and vendors to access swarms of customers and participate in the celebration.

If you’re planning to run a stall and operate as a vendor at this year’s Carnival, you’ll need the very best in the way of hardware, software and payment infrastructure to ensure you can serve as many customers as possible and stay on top of the crowds. Below are some of the top 5 essential Square products for street traders.

Square Reader

If you’re planning on taking card payments, one of the main things you’re going to need at your stall is a card reader. Square’s chip and PIN and contactless card reader is suitable for all business types and, due to its small size, portability and wireless connection, is ideal for street vendors.

Take secure payments every time with data security, 24/7 fraud prevention and payment dispute management thrown in at no extra cost. For customers that prefer to pay with e-wallets, you can also accept payments from Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Plus, thanks to its powerful battery life, you can take payments for hours before you’ll need to recharge. And every contactless or chip and PIN payment is the same simple rate: 1.75%.

Square Terminal

Another must-have for taking payments at stalls is a terminal. Square’s all-in-one terminal accepts a variety of payment methods, including mobile and contactless payments, and transfers the funds to you the next business day. It’s easy to use, reliable and gets you up and running as a seller fast.

It comes with no long-term commitments or contracts, just transparent, simple processing rates. Another bonus is security for both you and your customers – we follow industry requirements for protecting data, and we constantly monitor for suspicious activity and fraudulent payments.
Plus, we manage payment disputes so you don’t have to, helping you avoid costly chargeback fees.

Square Register

With our fully integrated till system, you can start selling your wares at the carnival immediately. Accept all forms of in-person payments at one simple rate. With a customer-facing display, buyers can see the price and pay intuitively using chip and PIN, contactless, e-wallets or even wearables.

Square Register also comes with a 2-year limited warranty, protection from eligible chargebacks and access to 24/7 phone support should you run into any snags. It also allows offline payments, meaning you can still take payments even if your internet goes down.

Square Online Store

Having a strong online presence before the carnival kicks off can help attract customers to your stall at the event and is a key part of any business growth strategy. With Square online, you can build an e-commerce store, customise it as you please and manage orders and customer service through it.

Customers can quickly access your online store from their mobiles – just like an app. Thanks to its mobile-first design, customers can easily scroll, shop and pay on a phone’s browser. If your customers at Notting Hill Carnival like your products, they can easily find you online and order from there in the future. Plus, the opposite is also true – customers that find you online are also more likely to approach your stall at the event. Square even has a feature for adding a pop-up or banner on the site advertising an upcoming event – so you can easily add something along the lines of “Catch us at Notting Hill Carnival on the 27th and 28th August”.

Additionally, it seamlessly integrates with any Square POS, meaning you can efficiently manage online and in-store sales from a single unified system.

Square for Restaurants

If you’re a food stall, you can significantly increase your order efficiency with Square Restaurants. Boosting speed and flexibility, this all-in-one point-of-sale system helps you keep on top of orders and manage menus and food preparation from a single screen. With the Square Kitchen Display System, you also can easily keep orders in sync with digital tickets, times and alerts, seamlessly connecting customer-facing sellers to those handling food prep.

Square Invoices

If you prefer to take payments via invoices, our invoicing software can help save you time and get you paid faster. You can send out digital invoices in seconds using a variety of templates, and track the payments from anywhere. Let customers pay invoices online, in person or from their phone with a credit or debit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay or gift card. They can also buy now and pay later using Clearpay.

Square Instant Transfers

Stay in control of your cash flow over the weekend and access your funds within minutes, with Square Instant Transfers. You can instantly transfer your funds from your Square balance to your external bank account — for a 1% fee. No more waiting, get access to your money as soon as you need it.

How to be a vendor at Notting Hill Carnival

If you want to trade at Notting Hill Carnival, there are a few things you should be aware of:

• You will need to pay a £10 fee for Reserve List Registration – and this does not guarantee you a stall

• If you are offered a stall, you must then get hold of a street trading licence

• To acquire this licence, you are required to attend a mandatory Carnival Training Course

• Stalls are not provided, you must come with your own

• Electricity is also not provided

• Traders are not permitted to sell alcohol in any form

• You are also not allowed to sell the following services: fortune-telling, tattooing, body piercing, head massage, hairdressing and tarot reading

• Otherwise, you can sell pretty much anything, including clothing, jewellery and handmade cosmetics – but bear in mind that the most popular will always be the food stalls (and of those, Caribbean cuisine will have the longest queues!)