How Do I Get Square Customers to Spend More? (Your 2026 Guide)

Here is a fun little maths problem for you. You already take payments through Square. The tap happens, the receipt prints, the customer smiles, and off they go. Lovely. But right there, in that three second window, sits the single biggest missed opportunity in your whole business: you have no idea when they are coming back, and no way to nudge them to spend a bit more when they do. “How Do I Get Square Customers to Spend More??” we hear…

Square is brilliant at the moment of sale. What it is not built to do is grow the moments in between. That is where a branded app comes in, and no, you do not need to be a developer or remortgage the house to get one. Let’s dig into how Square businesses are quietly turning “one and done” customers into regulars who spend more every single time.

Why isn’t my Square POS enough on its own?

Square does exactly what it says on the tin. It processes the payment, tracks the sale, and keeps your books tidy. It is a fantastic till. But a till is reactive. It waits for the customer to walk in, and it has absolutely no opinion on whether that customer ever comes back.

Think of Square as the engine and a branded app as the steering wheel. The engine gets you moving, but the app decides where you go: repeat visits, bigger baskets, a direct line to your best customers that does not depend on the whims of a social media algorithm.

Here is the number that should make you sit up. Square’s own research found that a small group of loyal regulars generates around six times more revenue for small businesses than casual one-off shoppers. Six times. You are almost certainly already sitting on those regulars. The question is whether you have any way to reach them tomorrow, or whether you are just hoping they wander back in.

“Most small business owners treat the sale as the finish line. It is actually the starting line. A branded app turns that one transaction into a relationship you actually own.” Ian Naylor, AppBuild.diy

How does a branded app get customers to spend MORE per visit?

This is where it gets genuinely exciting, because a good app quietly does the upselling you never have time to do when there is a queue out the door.

A few things happen at once:

Order-ahead nudges the basket up. When people order through an app rather than at the counter or over the phone, they tend to spend more. Restaurants consistently see roughly 18 to 20% higher order values from app orders compared to phone or in-person. Why? Nobody is watching, nobody is waiting behind them, and “add a side?” is a button, not an awkward conversation.

Smart add-ons do the work for you. Your app can suggest the flat white to go with the pastry, the aftercare kit with the treatment, the phone case with the phone. It never forgets, never gets shy, and never has a bad morning.

Bundles and “treat yourself” offers land at the right moment. A gentle push notification at 2pm (“Afternoon slump? 2 for 1 on cake slices till 4”) turns a dead hour into a mini rush.

None of this requires you to hard-sell anyone. The app just makes the bigger order the easy, obvious choice.

“You are not trying to squeeze people. You are making it effortless for someone who already loves you to say yes to a little bit more. That is the whole trick.” Becky Halls, AppBuild.diy

How do I get Square customers to spend more?

Spending more per visit is only half the win. The real magic is frequency, and this is where loyalty plus push notifications become your best friends.

Square’s data on loyalty is honestly hard to ignore: for food and drink businesses, Square Loyalty customers spend 46% more and visit 57% more often than non-members. Across all business types, sellers see roughly a 26% lift in visit frequency once loyalty is in play. Those are not rounding errors. That is the difference between a quiet Tuesday and a busy one.

A branded app supercharges loyalty because it lives in your customer’s pocket, not in a drawer with 40 crumpled paper punch cards. Every visit stamps automatically. Rewards ping up when they are earned. And here is the bit paper can never do: you can send a friendly nudge to the exact people who have not been in for a while. “We miss you, here’s a free coffee on your next visit” is a shockingly effective sentence.

The 2026 trend worth riding here is the shift from generic points schemes to real-time, personalised rewards. Customers have quietly grown tired of “collect 500 points for a maybe-reward someday.” What works now is instant, relevant, and a little bit human: a birthday treat, a reward that unlocks the moment they hit the threshold, an offer tied to what they actually buy. Your app can do all of that on autopilot.

Do I have to be technical to build a Square app?

Nope. And this is the part people genuinely do not believe until they try it.

No-code app builders (like AppBuild.diy, since you asked) let you build a branded app that sits neatly on top of your existing Square setup. You are not ripping anything out or migrating your data to some scary new system. Your Square POS keeps doing its thing, and the app adds the customer-facing layer: ordering, loyalty, push notifications, your menu or product list, your branding.

You drag, you drop, you pick your colours, you launch. If you can put together a half-decent Instagram post, you can build this. The days of needing a £20,000 developer quote to have your own app are firmly over.

“I always tell people to start small. Launch with loyalty and one order-ahead feature. Get your regulars using it, then add the clever stuff. A live, simple app beats a perfect one that never ships.” David Hall, AppBuild.diy

How do I get people to actually download it?

Fair question, because an app nobody downloads is just an expensive business card. The trick is to make downloading feel worth it in the same breath as the sale.

A few tactics that work brilliantly for Square businesses:

Bribe them at the till (nicely). A little QR code sign by the card reader: “Scan to download and get your first reward free.” You already have their attention at checkout, so use it.

Make the app the only door to the best deal. App-exclusive offers give people a real reason to keep it installed. If the best price lives in the app, the app stays on the phone.

Give an instant payoff. Free first coffee, £5 off the next visit, double points on sign-up. The reward needs to land now, not “eventually.”

Train your team to mention it in one line. “Pop your details in the app and this one’s stamped for you” takes three seconds and quietly builds your database every single day.

What’s the trending opportunity for Square businesses in 2026?

The big one is owning your customer relationship in an age where reach is getting harder and more expensive to rent. Social platforms keep throttling organic reach, ad costs keep climbing, and everyone is fighting over the same feed. A push notification to your own app audience, by contrast, is free, direct, and lands every time.

Pair that with the rise of AI-assisted personalisation baked into no-code tools, and small businesses can now do what only the big chains could afford a few years ago: send the right offer, to the right person, at the right moment, without hiring a marketing team. Your Square data tells you who buys what. Your app turns that knowledge into a gentle, well-timed nudge. That combination is the quiet superpower of 2026.

How Do I Get Square Customers to Spend More – FAQ

Do I need to stop using Square if I get an app? Not at all. A branded app sits on top of Square. Your POS carries on exactly as before, and the app just adds ordering, loyalty, and a direct line to your customers.

How much does a Square app cost to build? With a no-code builder it is a world away from the old developer quotes. You typically pay a manageable monthly subscription rather than a huge one-off build fee, which puts it well within reach for independent businesses.

How long does it take to launch? Most owners get a working first version live in days, not months. Start with loyalty and order-ahead, then add features as you go.

Will my customers actually use it? They will if you give them a reason. Lead with an instant reward, keep app-only offers genuinely good, and mention it at the till. Downloads follow value.

What if I only sell in person and don’t do delivery? Perfect. This is not really about delivery. It is about loyalty, repeat visits, and spend per visit. A coffee shop, a barber, a boutique, all benefit even with zero delivery.

How Do I Get Square Customers to Spend More – The bottom line

Your Square setup is already capturing every sale. The opportunity is in everything that happens next: getting that customer back through the door sooner, and helping them happily spend a little more when they do. A branded app is how you close that gap, and in 2026 it is genuinely something you can build yourself.

Ready to turn your Square regulars into your best marketing channel? Have a look at what you could build over at AppBuild.diy.

Last Updated on August 5, 2026 by Becky Halls