Online and in-person items merging? What about my categories?!

[bearandbird]

I see that Square is now merging the Site Items and "in-person" POS/retail Items pages...

The problem I am worried about is this> My online shop and my in-store POS do not have the same list of categories. Currently you cannot independently setup the categories for the two different sales channels - it only lists ONE CATEGORY OPTION on the desktop/items library.

A (way too big) window popped up at the top of my site items page today - saying "THIS PAGE IS MOVING" - so now I am worried ALL of my categories for my thousands of items are going to be messed up! The "learn more" link was no help and nearly every time I try to be proactive and spend hours with the Square support team chat about their new upcoming features they don't even understand the question I am asking, so I just waste time and get more frustrated... 😞

I have been waiting/hoping for better integration for a few years - so I am really HOPING this works as expected. But, as I have seen from past Square feature upgrades and integrations there are usually really time consuming problems that go along with any upgrades they do. Not the point though... just saying I am pessimistic from past experiences! Anyone have any ideas or can help me from freaking out when they merge my stuff and mess up my whole database?

This page is moving!

Manage both online and in-person items in Square Item Library

You can now view your Site Items in Square Item Library and manage online and in-person items in one place. Check out a more convenient way to manage inventory on Square Dashboard at Items > Item library.

Learn more goes to this link--> https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/5115-create-and-manage-items-online?

[JJ_]

This is a very interesting report/question @bearandbird

I will look into this with our team and confirm if this change affects Square Online Categories or not. I will get back to you soon.

[bearandbird]

Thank you @JJ_ 

It is very important that we are able to determine reporting versus online shopping categories for the two.

We'd also like a timeline on when this is happening. The alert provided by square had no useful information whatsoever.

[_Violet]

Hi @bearandbird -  Violet here, following up for @JJ_. It looks like you still need help with this, so I kept the ball rolling on your inquiry.

We reached out to the Square Online team and this is what they let us know, "The categories will merge as well. We recently launched Advanced Categories which will converge POS and Square Online categories into a centralized area on their Square dashboard for more convenience.

Sellers who signed up for Square Online before getting access to Advanced Categories will still manage their categories separately on the two systems until their Square Online site categories are migrated to the platform in early 2024. At that point they will also gain access to the Square Online-specific category settings in the Square platform."

I hope this information is helpful, but please do let me know if you have any additional questions.

[Provision]

I agree, are we going to get to choose if we want to keep our Square Online Categories? Ours are also different from Square and Square Online.

[E-cat]

I am also concerned, for similar but different reasons. The item management screen is totally different in Square, and I need the functionality in the Square Online screen. 

[DinaLRosenberg]

What I was told from category convergence is that the directionality is from online to item catalog... so that whatever is categorized online will now be in the item library...

I'm in the same boat as you- we don't use the same categories in-store and online (most retailers don't).. I've tried to explain this to square.

We'll see if what they said comes to pass... I've had some gnarly issues with our online items getting really messed up so we're afraid.

[KpopLoyal]

I don't like this AT ALL!!!! Now everything is a mess and I have to clean it up by deleting, creating and merging myself. I don't have the functions I once did with the separate screens. I want it back the way it was!!! 
Also, I don't like that it keeps logging me out or timing out when I'm in idle while I'm in the middle of something. This is just a huge headache. 

[AOLK]

Perhaps someone here can help me. I have items in my Square Online Item Library, i.e., here:

https://square.online/app/store/users/.../sites/.../#/store/products 

that do not show up in my Square Item Library in the Dashboard, i.e., here: 

https://app.squareup.com/dashboard/items/library

The items in the "Square Online Item Library" do not have Categories assigned (I don't know if that is the problem or only a symptom) and I cannot assign Categories to them because the only option for assigning Categories goes to the Dashboard where the items do not appear. 

Is there any way, either in bulk or one at a time, to copy items that are only in Square Online into the Square Dashboard Items Library?