Get Started with Customer Information Collection
Square collects your customer’s email addresses and phone numbers when they elect to receive digital receipts. If customers opt-out of receiving digital receipts, you can still collect additional customer information in a variety of ways:
POS sign-up screen
Hosted sign-up page
Embedded sign-up form
Unique QR code
Messaging Text and email subscribers
Import customer lists
Subscribe existing Square customers in Directory
Collecting your customer's information with Square’s customer information collection tools enables you to expand your marketing reach. You can even incentivize customers to share their information by offering a discount or coupon with Square Marketing.
Email addresses and names shared by customers are saved in your Customer Directory, and can be used with Square Marketing or exported for use with a third-party marketing service. Customers who sign up for your mailing list are reflected in the Collected Emails group of your Customer Directory.
This video has an overview of collecting your customer’s information at checkout and online:
Collect Customer Information from the POS Sign-up Screen
Open the Square POS app > More > Settings > Customers.
Tap Sign-Up Screen > Toggle on Collect customer data after sale.
Go to the Data section and click Add/remove data to select the customer data you want to collect or create new data fields under Configure Profile.
In the Messaging and coupon section, edit the headline, subheadline, and choose to add a coupon to send to your customers. If you want to do this, click Create a coupon > Coupon type > Coupon amount > Expires. Tap Preview to see what will be sent to your customers.
Note: This feature is currently available on iPad only. If you are using Square Loyalty, then Square Loyalty takes precedence over customer signup in the checkout flow.
Collect Customer Information with a Hosted Sign-up Page
Go to the Customers tab in Square Dashboard and click Customers > Settings > Email Collection.
Under Hosted Sign-Up Page, click Customize Page.
Customize the title, body, button color, and add your business logo (optional).
Click Save.
Collect Customer Info from an Embedded Sign-up Form
Go to the Customers tab in Square Dashboard and click Customers > Settings > Email Collection.
Under Embedded Sign-up Form, click Customize Form.
Customize the text and color of your sign-up button.
Click Save.
Click Copy Code to copy the HTML code and paste it into your editing tool.
Collect Customer Information Offline
Customers can submit their contact information by scanning a unique QR code you can print and place anywhere.
| If collecting information for use with Square Marketing, only send marketing communications to customers who have consented to receive marketing emails from your business. You are responsible for ensuring the customers on your list have given explicit permission to contact them and for compliance with all applicable laws. Review our terms for additional information. |
You can collect marketable email addresses and phone numbers anywhere with a QR code for customers to scan, where they can consent to receive email or text marketing messages from your business. When a customer scans the QR code, they are taken to an information collection page where they can provide their email address and/or phone number and consent to sign up for email marketing, text message marketing and enroll in your loyalty Program. You can also share a URL on your social media channels, website, or blog.
Email and Text Subscriber Smart Groups
Customers who sign up for your mailing lists are automatically populated into your Customer Directory and are found in the smart groups of Email Subscribers and/or Text Subscribers (depending on if they provide email address and/or phone number). You can also filter by Marketing Subscriber to build an advanced text and/or email marketing audience on the fly.
If you are using Square Email Marketing, customer contact information in your Customer Directory, such as email addresses, can be used to send out email marketing campaigns.
Email Subscribers
The Email Subscribers smart group excludes unsubscribed and bounced emails. Email subscribers in the Customer Directory and Square Marketing are defined as customers with a visible email address (that has not bounced or unsubscribed) or with a private (not-visible) email address that has made a payment with the seller in the last 12 months.
Visible email addresses: The email was collected by the seller or the buyer entered it themselves.
Not-visible/Private email addresses: The email was collected at the receipt stage, and Square auto-populated the email for convenience to the customer. You cannot see these email addresses, but you can market to them.
Note: Email Subscribers where there is no email address shown are customers you can reach via Square network data collected from Receipts. These customers have purchased with you and used a card Square has linked to an email address for automatic receipts. Square enables you to market to that customer, but will not share their email address with you.
Text Subscribers
The Text Subscribers smart group is defined as a customer who has opted in to Text Message Marketing.
Currently, your customers can opt in to text message marketing via the Square Point of Sale, or by using the text to join functionality.
Square POS Checkout: A Text Message Marketing enrolment screen will appear during customer checkout, asking them to opt into your marketing program by providing their phone number, and also providing them with their first coupon. After doing this, they’ll receive their coupon and be opted-in to your Text Message Marketing program.
Square Loyalty subscribers can able to collect Text Message Marketing opt-ins via the Square Loyalty enrolment screen, which we’ve updated to include consent to receive Text Message Marketing.
Text to Join: During Text Message Marketing onboarding, you are issued a unique phone number to which your customers can text ‘JOIN’ to be added to your opt-in list wherever and whenever it’s convenient for them. After texting JOIN, they’ll receive a confirmation text that they need to respond YES to complete the opt-in process. You can promote the number on your website, social media, email, or in-store.
Import Customer Lists
If you already have an existing customer list from Square Online or a third-party platform, you'll need to update your customer profiles to display the subscribed status before you can send email marketing. Learn more about importing customers online.
Note: We do not currently support phone number list upload because we cannot verify that the customers who provided the phone numbers on an uploaded list explicitly consented to receive marketing text messages. However, we provide an update if anything changes.
Import a New Customer List
Go to Customer Directory in your online Square Dashboard.
Click Import customers > Download template to download a blank CSV file. This will allow you to bulk upload your customer list.
Open the CSV file using Microsoft Excel or other common spreadsheet software. Enter the customer details, including their name and email address.
Under the Email Subscription Status column, in each row enter subscribed, unsubscribed, or unknown. Click Save. Note: Only customers with ‘subscribed’ in this column will be able to be emailed and count towards your subscriber number.
Go back to your Customer Directory and select Import Customers.
Follow the steps to drag and drop your file to upload or click select it from your computer. Ensure you review and tick the checkbox. Click Next.
Assign applicable field labels. Click Import.
Your customer’s email status will now appear as “Subscribed”.
Subscribe Existing Square Customers in Directory
If you’re seeing existing customers who are not subscribed to Marketing and want to subscribe them, take the following actions:
Go to Customer Directory in your online Square Dashboard.
Select the customers who provided permission to receive marketing emails. If all customers have provided consent, go to step 5.
Click Add to Group.
Select an existing group or select Create New Group. Then, select Add to Group.
Once you’ve created a new group, click Export Customers.
Click Specific Groups and choose the group.
Click Export.
Click Download to edit a CSV file containing your customers.
Open the CSV file using Microsoft Excel or other common spreadsheet software.
In the Email Subscription Status column, update ‘unknown‘ to ‘subscribed‘. Click Save.
Go back to your Customer Directory and select Import Customers.
Follow the steps to drag and drop your file to upload or click select it from your computer. Ensure you review and tick the checkbox. Click Next.
Assign applicable field labels. Click Import.
Your customer’s email status will now appear as “Subscribed”.
If you’re using Square Loyalty, the customer information collection screen will not be displayed if the purchase is eligible for a point. If you’d like to collect customer emails and use Square Loyalty, you may be interested in using the email collection tools included in the Loyalty program setup process..