Discounts Product Team Q&A: Ask us anything about Discounts!

[Tom]

On October 27th, 2021, our Discounts product team hosted a Q&A focused on sellers who use Point of Sale, Square for Retail, Square for Restaurants, Appointments, and Invoices.

We're aware that many sellers have questions and requests related to setting up discounts within the mobile app as well as the online Square Dashboard. We appreciated learning about what's going well and where there is room for improvement. We can't share out specific details on our product roadmaps, though we will certainly make sure all of the posts that came through on this thread are incorporated into the decision process. 

A few example questions:

• What's the best way to set up a discount for a limited time sale?
• What's the best way to manage my discounts if I have multiple product bundle offerings?
• I need a discount that does "______" — what is your best suggestion?
• I wish I had "______" reporting for my discounts.

[kwoodlock]

Hi @sfcsu,

No, only one coupon code can be added to an online order.

[FlowPTandP]

I use appointments for my physical therapy and Pilates business.  I allow clients to purchase a package of 10 Pilates sessions.  I take check or credit card and don't want to do invoices.  Also, due to the nature of my business, people must schedule with me and not online.  Is Square going to create the ability to sell packages so that each scheduled session that is pre-paid doesn't require a payment each session?  And will Square please create the ability for appointments to track how many pre-paid sessions have been used?  My current work around is not charging the client for the session they've pre-paid for and keeping track of how many sessions they've used manually.  Seems this should've been a feature that was available at the start.  It makes me question whether I'll continue using appointments or switch to a different scheduling option.  Thank you!

[burrito]

The ability to exclude alcohol from a XX% discount that applies to an entire guest check: https://www.sellercommunity.com/t5/Square-Point-of-Sale-Feature/Is-there-a-way-to-NOT-allow-discount...

The question via the link above was thoughtfully and helpfully responded to by a Square Community Moderator. However, a follow up comment to the answer from that moderator:

(The moderator's suggested work around) does not help resolve the issue as we have roughly 40+ discounts in our Discount Catalog. Assigning the discount to each and every "Item or Category" would be a challenging task to implement, track, and assign to future discounts created. 

Many states/counties/cities prohibit the discounting of alcohol. The ability to easily exclude discounting of alcohol on a bill should be a reasonable ask to keep restaurant businesses in compliance w/ local and state laws.

[kwoodlock]

Hi @burrito,

We will evaluate excluding some items or categories from receiving discounts as a feature, especially given the volume of similar requests here.

[cafelovi]

Hi all, I apologize if this is something that has been answered before, I searched the forum but I'm still new to Square. 

I'd like to offer discounts to specific segments (say, the nearby school, the office upstairs) on specific items (say, drinks) but whenever I create a discount and apply a rule (school, 20% off, drinks) the rule goes and applies itself to all sales in the category (drinks). Is there any way I can manually enter the discount when I do the sale to the target audience (say, add "school" discount) so that it gives the discount on the item (say, drinks), without affecting the item on an ongoing basis? 

Thanks!

[divyar]

Hi @cafelovi,

You can create a customer group “school” and from the customer module in iOS App, link to this item based discount. This should allow you to auto apply the discount to the school group. Read more. We are working on the dashboard feature for this.

[secondlifeatl]

Is it possible to restrict an item from being discounted? We have items that are excluded from all discounts and want to make sure they are not accidentally discounted by our cashiers.

[kwoodlock]

Hi @secondlifeatl,

We will evaluate excluding some items or categories from receiving discounts as a feature, especially given the volume of similar requests here.

[Josephwigton]

What is the best way to limit multiple discounts? For example, not valid with any other discount. We have an employee discount, but it needs to not work if there are other discounts lowering the item.

[kwoodlock]

Hi @Josephwigton,

We are starting work on new options to make discount stacking more configurable.

One option you may consider for a workaround now is to create your employee discount as a Customer Group automatic discount, and have a Customer Group for your employees. Rather than adding the employee discount manually to the sale, they would add themselves as a customer to the sale, and then the discount would apply. This will apply only the highest available discount to any single item.

[secondlifeatl]

Why does the iPad app show the discount under the item, but the Square Register does not? This makes it very difficult for the cashier to quickly see if the correct discount has been applied.

[kwoodlock]

Short answer is, the design language and styling were built at different times. We do have work underway here to harmonize all of our designs and styles so different products look the same!

There is work underway also to re-evaluate our checkout screens and receipts to make sure we're surfacing the right information in a way that isn't confusing. We will use this feedback to help us.

[secondlifeatl]

Thank you. The Square Register works great with the customer facing screen (it shows the customers the amount/percentage off each item, so it was strange to me that the cashier facing device didn't do the same thing.

Hopefully that is a change that can happen soon. When you have a retail store with multiple discounts on any given day it is nice to see that they are being applied correctly.

Thank you for your response.

[allwhowander]

Hey @Tom & discount team-

This is a lot to ask, and you don't have to address this, just more of a wish list for future updates: 

1. Allow same discounts on POS to work online (maybe a switch asking if you want to apply to online orders too)

2. Allow global discounts, but also each item should have a set of behaviors you can override (disable discounting, limited time discounts, "if this then that" style options, etc.)

3. Ability to automatically apply a discount for to-go orders (i.e. add on a 4 pack of beer to go, and it brings the price down when you hit the "to-go" switch)

4. Automatic bundle discounts.

5. Automatic discounts online - Spend $50, get free shipping or a free product (without having to use a coupon.)

6. Automatic discount for subscriptions "subscribe and save xx%"

Cheers

[kwoodlock]

Hi @allwhowander,

1. We're working hard on merging POS and Online discount functionality.
2. We will take a hard look at excluding items from discounts based on all the feedback in this thread.
3. Discounts based on dining option/fulfillment is on our roadmap, but we aren't working on it yet.
4. Bundle discounts are on our roadmap as well. There may be work-arounds using quantity based discounts, but we know a lot of use cases (like "buy 5 for $35") aren't covered.
5. Minimum-spend based discounts are coming very soon, but allowing them to apply on Square Online is dependent on the work I called out for #1.
6. We have a dedicated team building our subscriptions product and I'll make sure this gets to them!

Thank you for so many ideas!

Can you please share a bit more information about your "if this then that" feature request in #2? I'd like to understand what your desired pricing structure is, and what workarounds you're currently using if any.

[allwhowander]

Thanks @kwoodlock for your full response! In regard to "if this then that" a case example would be:

A guest sits down and has a beer and pizza at the bar. When they ask to close their open ticket, we say "hey if you grab a mix 4 pack of beer (4 individual cans) to take home, you'll get 10% off!" So behind the scenes it may look like: IF the customer had any dine-in item on order, AND adds AT LEAST 4 cans of beer to their order, AND we indicate it's a to-go sale, THEN give 10% off only those 4 items." I know this is a lot to ask, but I wonder if this would make it easier for merchants to customize their method of discounting. Also, I wonder if it would be easier in the long run for your programmers to add in future discount options (instead of adding one by one and having to re-engineer the relationships between each option.) Hope this helps. 

[getBackOnCourse]

I'd like to be able to use the discounts created in Square in my Square Online website's checkout flow. It appears that the Square Online Discounts must be input separately in the "Coupons" section. Is there any cross-functionality of the Discounts and Coupons?

[divyar]

Hi @getBackOnCourse,

Square Online discounts do not sync with Square Discounts now. We are working on this.

[secondlifeatl]

Can you create a discount for $ off a single item? I have only been able to do a $ off the entire purchase.

[divyar]

Hi @secondlifeatl,

You could create an auto discount that applies to that item. $ discounts when manually applied work only at cart level.

[secondlifeatl]

That would work if the item always had that discount. We offer a coupons that give you $ off any item. It was easy to do with our previous system (NCR), but I have not figured out how to do this with Square.