Square Order on mobile is also getting the axe

It's less than a year old, but Square Order's time in the market will be very short-lived indeed. The service that allowed users to preorder food and drinks from local establishments was launched middle of last year at the same time that Square Wallet was announced to be closed off. It seems like a recurring curse, but now it's Square Order's time to bite the dust as well. On the one hand, it's not surprising given how it failed to take off, but Square isn't exactly backing out of the market just yet.

Square announced Order last year to take the place of its previous Wallet attempt. That said, though both make payments through mobile devices, it wasn't an exact replacement. Order, as the name would imply, focuses on ordering food. Or to be exact, pre-ordering food to be picked up at a later time. Square Order had a few high profile adopters, most notably Starbucks, though it seems the coffee giant's clout wasn't enough to keep Order from closing up shop.

But Square isn't giving up entirely on the idea. In fact, it has yet another service already available. It's called Caviar this time and if it sounds high and fancy, you wouldn't be wrong. Unlike Order, Caviar is more fine tuned for more serious food transactions and for food deliveries. Hopefully, it won't suffer the same fate as Order as well as Wallet. Here's what Square has to say about the closure:

We've spoken with our sellers, and after careful consideration we've decided to retire the Square Order app. We are focusing our efforts on other tools and marketing services that help sellers grow their business, like online ordering, gift cards, or delivery with Caviar.

Though we are retiring pickup as a standalone app, customers will still be able to order items for pickup at their favorite local businesses by using the Square Online Store.

So there's still some good news for the few Order fans. It's still business as usual for their Web portal, but, given Square's high turnover for its services, only time will tell if this will also be closed down.

VIA: VentureBeat