Inventory: How to track item inventory, not individual item variations?

[authorKMDoherty]

I have two items (two different books I've written.) Both items have two different prices: one book is $15, any two books are $25 ($12.50 each,) and any three or more books are $10 a piece. (Example: it doesn't matter whether they buy two of the first book, or one of each book, it's still $12.50 a piece for two books.) Currently, I accomplished this by giving each item four variations, each variation having a different price. This works great, but when I added inventory, it keeps track of the inventory of each variation. But all variations are the same item, so I want the item inventory to be decreased by one each time any variation on the item is purchased. How do I accomplish this?   Thanks in advance!

[CompuPane]

If you are selling these in person, wouldn't it be easier to give a discount for multiple purchases rather than having different prices for multiple books? So, if they buy 2 books, you give a $5 discount; if they buy 5 books, you would give a $25 discount. You get the idea. 

[authorKMDoherty]

I have a three tie pricing structure. I want there to be an incentive to buy two books, and an event bigger incentive to buy 3 or more. I also want it to make it easy for my customers (a sale comes out to be $15, $25, $30, $40, etc.) Looking at the posts about discounts being based on quantity, it doesn't appear square has the ability to do that. Many users are asking for that functionality to be added. Unfortunately, a discount in percentage for 3 or more books is 0.66666666. It doesn't work out exactly, so that won't work. 

[Sean]

@CompuPane - Thanks a ton for the suggestion! 

@authorKMDoherty - You're correct. We don't currently offer the ability to base a discount on item quantity. I suggest subscribing to the Feature request thread about conditional, criteria, or quantity cased discounts for future updates. We'll be sure to share there if anything changes in the future. You could manually calculate the discount and then add it to the sale with a variable price dollar discount (realizing this isn't ideal). 

[Cathy9887]

I'm glad you posted this... I've been trying to figure out how to do something similar for hours.  I have an inventory of items which I sell at a specified price to customers.  However, several fellow crafters & I frequently purchase items from each other at a very small markup over actual cost.  There's no way for me to have a "Retail" variation, priced for clients and a "Wholesale" variation, priced for colleagues, and yet have the inventory count be for both. 

I think what I will do for the time being is, when I get a new shipment of something... like, 48 cups... I will specify the inventory count as 30 for Retail, and 18 for collegues.  Then, if I actually need 20 for colleagues, I can just transfer 2 over.  Definitely not ideal... but it'll work for now.

[Spenser]

Thanks for posting, @Cathy9887, and welcome to the Community.  

CompuPane's suggestion is probably your best bet for now, but we'll update here in the Community if this changes in the future. 

[NCRC]

What if I am selling burgers and cheese burgers?  I use the burgers in both variations.  I thought there was a way to track the raw materials going into each variation.  I am sure it wouldn't be difficult for them to add.  

[EJ_]

@NCRC You can use modifiers and price points to customize items in your library, but only price points are tracked with inventory management.

The best workaround that a few other sellers use is to create the cheese or topping as an individual item rather than a modifier so that it's tracked.