New to Square: best practice for adding unique art items?

[retrojim]

I'm new to Square POS. I'm starting to sell my wood turnings (bowls, pens, etc.) at craft shows and I'm curious what the best practice is for entering items when every item is unique. For example, I have multiple pens in a certain style but each one is unique in regards to the wood I use, segmenting, turning details, etc. In my non-Square inventory app on my iPad every turned item I make has a unique SKU/serial number. There are similarities however. Pens, for example, use metal hardware that can be the same between pens.

So is the best practice to create an item for a pen type, then create the unique items as variations? Or should each unique pen I have be it's own item? I think the latter would be unmanageable on the Checkout screen. I do want to easily track the individual item SKU/serial when I make a sale as that goes back to my other database where every item has its own photo.

How do other artists do this when every item they have is unique in some way?

Thanks in advance,

Jim

[nika]

Hello and welcome to Square @retrojim! 😀

Sounds like you've got quite the selection of pens! So question for you... Are your pens different from one another in that one will have, let's say, one type of wood and one type of turning detail... then another would be made from a different type of wood and one type of segmenting?

I'm trying to get a gauge first of how many different types of pens you actually have as far as inventory goes. This will help me guide you in the right direction for set up. I'm thinking that using categories with modifiers would be best... but first let me know what your inventory count looks like and we'll go from there!

[retrojim]

See my other reply in this thread, but basically every pen is unique. Let me expand on the painter example. If I paint landscapes and still lifes for sale every single painting is a unique piece. I wouldn't want to have a "Landscape" and "Still Life" category and then put each painting under those because i couldn't have a unique photo for each.

I think if variations had the ability to have unique photos, prices, and descriptions it might solve this problem for those of us with unique items. A bonus would be nested hierarchial categories for inventory organization. Using the paintings example again: Landscapes->Mountains->Oregon or something like that.

[qphia]

I have what I think is the exact same situation.

I am a long-time Square user, and am both adding new products as well as having to rebuild my Square inventory due to the restrictions in the way products are managed.

I have large numbers of unique (one-of-a-kind) variations of one item (e.g. wooden bowties or ruffly skirts, or...). It is currently unmanageable, as I have to add each variation as a unique item with only 1 in stock.

I'd like to have an Item that is "wooden bowtie". This item can then have a large number of variations that are unique, with 1 in stock, and with a picture of that variation directly associated with the inventory tracking.

Can I do this??

[cmusicshop]

I have a similar but different scenario.  I sell musical instruments, all unique to a degree - maybe color, year, variation within a model and so on.  I created a category for instruments and then within it broad items like 'acoustic guitar', 'electric guitar', 'amplifier', etc.

What I then do is add the item, say 'electric guitar' and then tap the item on the subtotal on the right hand side and add the needed details on the Notes line, like "1996 Fender Stratocaster, black" so that the receipt has some detail.  It isn't ideal by any means.  And I did try to have more specific items like 'used Fender electric guitar' instead of just 'used electric guitar' but abandoned it in favor of a simpler, cleaner screen.

I'd like to see the ability to add an item to a sale and THEN assign it to a category.  So main line in receipt is the detail and it doesn't show up as 'uncategorized' as it would now.

[retrojim]

Yes, this is what I need, variations to have their own photos, SKU, and price.

Guess I'll proceed by either just typing in the SKU and description on the receipt notes, or adding every single pen as a unique item. The latter may be the only way to go if I want automatic sync to my website using the WooCommerce Square plugin.

It looks like there might be a few of us that sell unique items like we're describing. I hope Square gives us a better solution for managing our inventory in the future.

[qphia]

I just ended up building each unique variation as an individual Item in Square. This was the Customer Support agent's recommendation as the best practice for now (as of last night).

The import into Weebly (for the website) wasn't perfect, as each one has a Variation that must be selected ...called "Regular". Not perfect...but workable for now.

I asked that they raise this issue as a higher priority...fingers crossed

[Rick12]

Hi Jim,

I’m a new art gallery and while researching how to handle unique items in Square, I came across your thread regarding unique items. I see it was from a few years ago; Are you still selling your turnings? And if so, still using Square?

Appreciate any insight!

Rick

[S_Market]

Im in the same boat,  and would like to know if you got any info since I just started my site and all of my items are unique and one offs.

[JJ_]

Hey, there @S_Market at this time there aren't any changes to this approach. 

I suggest you try @JK_Fiber_Art's workaround and see if this meets your business needs. Thank you for taking the time to share your interest in this request. If the above suggestion doesn't work for you we’d love it if you'd submit this request on our Ideate page for Square Online. Our team monitors these boards and we triage them to measure needs. You can search the boards to see if this has been requested before and add your use case if so!

[JK_Fiber_Art]

Hi Retrojim,

Almost all of my Fiber Art items are unique (basically one of a kind) as they are handmade.  For me, it did not make sense to maintain an inventory as there will be only one each.  What works for me - I simply setup Categories with no prices or descriptions, for example, Wall Hangings, Fabric Pins, Scarfs, Cards, Coasters, etc.  As we only sell in person, when a customer purchases a Fabric Pin, I select that category, enter the item number and price.  All of my items have an item number which is simply based on the photo of that item as I take a picture of each item I make - that also gives me some history.  Another example:  If a customer purchases a Card, I select the Card Category, enter a description as it can be a Fabric Card, Photo Card or a Note Card and enter the associated price.  As for Tax, that is based on the purchase amount and is calculated automatically.  Note, my system may not work for others as we all have varied requirements but, for my needs, this method is simple and easy.   

jk

[retrojim]

That's a great idea!

[Arie]

Thank you for sharing this workaround, @JK_Fiber_Art!