Sell by Weight - Question re: Average weight per item

[HCF-JJ]

Hello, 

We sell frozen cuts of meat. The weight of each individual unit may vary by the cut of meat.

For example:

One unit of Ground beef may weigh 1lb and cost $10 per lb and we have 100 units in stock.

One unit of Roast beef may weight 4lbs and cost $15 per lb and we have 10 units in stock.

For online sales, how do I set up my products so that a customer can add one unit of Ground beef (average weight 1lb, average value $10 at $10 per lb) and one unit of Roast beef (average weight 4lbs, average value $60 at $15 per lb) to their cart.

Once the order has been picked and packed and the final ACTUAL total of the meat (priced by weight) is charged to the customer credit card.

My expectation is that the customer is only sold two physical units of meat (one ground beef and one roast beef), charged an accurate price, and then my inventory is adjusted to show one each less of stock per item sold.

How do I set this up for both online sales and inventory tracking to allow the customer to purchase 1 unit of meat, which would have an average price and an average weight, but is one singular physical unit?

Thanks in advance!

[MayaP]

Hello @HCF-JJ 👋
 

Thanks for writing in! I just want to clarify you are strictly setting this up for sales through your website, not in person is this correct? Or do you want this setup for both online and in-person? 

[HCF-JJ]

We want to sell the same items in BOTH a physical location and also online. 

From the physical location, the customer can select the size of the meat unit they wish to buy from an assortment of pre-cut packets - ie a full size ham which weighs on average 3 lbs and costs $10 per lb - they can then proceed to the checkout where the item is weighed, and the customer is charged for the exact weight of the item they have selected.

We also want our ONLINE customers to be able to add a full size ham to their cart knowing that the average size of a ham is 3 lbs, therefore, the value of the item in their shopping cart will be approximately $30. We don't want the customer to be able to buy only 1 lb of ham since that unit size does NOT exist in our pre-cut unit options... 

Thanks in advance for helping to figure out if this is possible... screen shots of what we wish to achieve with Square, showing Average weight per item

[HCF-JJ]

Hello Maya, 

Hoping to keep this discussion going to find out if there is a viable solution available for our business requirements.

Thanks

[MayaP · Accepted solution]

Thanks for your patience!

Square does currently support selling items by weight in person but this isn't available for Square Online. Square Online doesn't support weights like that because the product has to be entered with an end price. As the buyer, you have to be able to select a product, add it to the cart and then purchase it to complete our ordering process. I certainly see how useful that feature would be, especially for your business need. I would recommend submitting a feature request on our Ideate board, from there we can track the request. Please keep in mind submitting to our Ideate Board does not guarantee this feature will be implemented. I know this doesn't solve your problem right now in its entirety, but I hope it offered some guidance. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

[HCF-JJ]

Thanks for the response -- I will for sure add in a request ticket -- I have also found other community threads discussing this exact same feature request.

https://www.sellercommunity.com/t5/Weebly-eCommerce/Selling-Variable-Weight-Items-ONLINE-for-pickup-...

My follow up question is, if we NEED to define a fixed price for our products ONLINE, are we able to authorise (delay capture) a customer payment at the time of purchase, but then CHARGE the correct payment amount at the time of fulfilment -- the goal would be to authorise an amount up front, then revise and charge a final billing amount once we have completed picking, weighing and packing of the unit of meat by weight.

I can see this code was deprecated in the developer portal, so want to know if this is an available feature today for those of us wishing to set up stores where we don't know the final price of any item until picking/fulfillment stage in the order life-cycle --> https://developer.squareup.com/docs/transactions-api/cookbook/delay-capture

What payment process does Square provide to facilitate this requirement?

Thanks, 

[Laurie_]

Hi there, @HCF-JJ, just jumping in for @MayaP here while they're out of the office!

Thanks for sharing your feedback with us regarding the feature request to sell items by weight. I can see my teammate has responded to your comments on this thread and has asked you some additional questions regarding your business. Feel free to reply with additional information when you get a chance.

Coming back to your follow-up question, currently, Square doesn’t offer support for pre-authorizing cards or collecting security deposits. 

However, we will continue to pass on the feedback we receive directly to our Product team. 

While I don't have a timeline I'm able to share with you, nor am I able to comment on internal developmental priorities, adding a feature that enables you to sell by item weight through Square is still on our radar.

Considering these are two significant features required to successfully run your business, it may be worthwhile considering alternate payment providers in the meantime. You can always check back on these threads for any movement on either feature request, as we'll be sure to update threads as new information is received.