New Retail Feature: Sell-by units and stock conversion

[tranguyen]

Hey Sellers!

Square for Retail Plus subscribers will now be able to sell an item in different units, and track inventory with those units - for instance, sell candles by a case of 12, by a bundle of 6, or by a single candle.

This works great for businesses that sell an item in multiple ways, but want to decrement inventory from the same quantity.  This can work for wine shops that sell wine by the case, bottle or glass.  We’ve seen Sellers use it for wholesale pricing, and price breaks for bulk buying.  

Each unit can have its own SKU or GTIN, so the barcode on the case is different from the barcode on the single.  

Retailers can set up a stock conversion in their Dashboard:

1. Navigate to the Items tab of your online Square Dashboard.
2. Select an existing item or click Create an Item.
3. In the Variations section, select Add unit in the price field, or select Edit variation details > Add unit. If your item contains multiple variations, select the variation name and then from the Edit variation details modal, select Add unit.
4. Select a unit, or create a new one, like “case”
5. Under the Conversion section, enter the conversion details specific to the item variation. For this example, a conversion for a case of candles might be “12 candles is equal to 1 case.”
6. Click Done to save.

You can repeat this process for any items that you sell in multiple units, as well as create multiple conversions for single items.

In the Retail POS app, these units will be selectable as variations during checkout.

This first version of this stock conversion tool only allows you to create sellable units. These will show in your POS and on your Square Online site.  It does not allow you to create gift baskets or recipes (eg bundles of different items) at this time.  When creating purchase orders or counting inventory in the Retail POS app, you’ll only be able to receive/count by the first unit entered.  We are working on more tools to help you receive, count, and make units non-sellable in the future.

For a detailed walkthrough of how to add sell-by stock unit conversions, visit our support centre here. 

To try out Square for Retail Plus features for free, get started here. 

[The_Sun_Inn]

So.. Would this work in a Bar Scenario where we have a keg of Lager which equates to say 88 Pints which we sell in Halfs or Pints? Or a bottle of Vodka which is 1.5 ltr and we sell it in 25 ml shots or 50 ml shots?

[Dirky]

I would like to know the exact same thing as @The_Sun_Inn  .

Also Is this feature available with Square POS yet? Retail version does not support COGS.

What do you think @tranguyen 

[Breffni]

Hi there, very good questions. 

I'm going to have to come back to you on your question @The_Sun_Inn.   

As mentioned in Tra's post we do have a detailed walkthrough of how to add sell-by stock unit conversions on our support centre which includes some examples which may help put things more into prespective for you: Stock Conversion: Sell-By. However I will try to get a more detailed answer for you. 

@Dirky this is feature is only available for Square for Retail at the moment. If you are looking for Cost of Goods Sold reports you would need to be subscribed to Square for Retail plus. 

[The_Sun_Inn]

@Breffni @Would it be possible to reinstate the ability to test the square for retail again as have previously tested and expired! It would be good to see if this would work for us! 

[Breffni]

I inquired @The_Sun_Inn but unfortunately once a free trial for any Square subscription has expired we can't extend it. The only option would be to pay for a month's subscription or create a new Square account and subscribe to the free trial and do some tests there, I know that wouldn't be ideal. Sorry I couldn't help more!

[Dirky]

Hi @Breffni 

Sorry, are you saying that this feature is not available in the Plus version of Retail? Only available in the regular version?

I'm sure that cant be correct. I posted a more in-detail question in the main Retail discussion board regarding this just today.

I'd like some expert help setting it up, is that possible, but only with somebody who is very familiar with it and understand what we want to do.

Thanks

D

[Breffni]

Hi @Dirky, thanks for tagging me. 

Are you referring to the selling by units and stock conversion feature? If so, this is a feature of Retail Plus. It's not available in the free version of Retail. Hope this answers your question? Let me know if not! Will keep an eye out for your other post, we'll do our best to get you the answers you need. 

[Dirky]

Hi @Breffni 

Yes that's what I am referring to. I do have the Retail Plus subscription. You may want to update this page

https://squareup.com/help/gb/en/article/7237-stock-conversion-sell-by as it does not mention that it is only for the Plus version as far as I can see.

Who do you think I should speak to to attempt setting this up for our bar?

Thanks

D

[Breffni]

I see what you mean @Dirky, that's definitely not clear. Thanks for flagging. 

For your second question, I've responded to your other thread! 

[nella]

Hi @tranguyen 

Is this the only post authored by Square on this functionality? I seem to remember a more recent one but I may be misremembering. 

We have a requirement to sell items as separate entities and then also bundled together. If sold as a bundle the stock of the constituent parts would be adjusted accordingly. In our business, the example is Item A (Jacket) and Item B (Trousers). When bundled they form Item C (Suit).

Can this be achieved now with the current functionality and if not, are there plans to build the functionality that would? Please forward this to your product team.

We use Square Invoices on Android and in the web browser; we are a Retail Plus seller. 

I provide a link here to another related post. 

Thank you.

[tranguyen]

That's a great question @nella! This is the only Square-authored post we have relating to this features on the Seller Community but we do have a Support Centre article as well. 

Unfortunately, at the moment, this feature won't be able to support bundling items as you outlined. Request for bundling items and being able to pull from various inventory is something that have been mentioned frequently on the Seller Community. Our Product team are aware of the demand for this feature and are explore different options on how to build this feature. I hope I'll be able to share a timeline for this soon but it's definitely worth keeping an eye on our Beta Community for upcoming tests. 

[EastRace]

We use Square Online store for omnichannel. When we add a conversion unit to a variation, is there a way to enable it on Square Online? The candles example is perfect - a buyer may want a box, 6, or just 1. Can that get rendered on square online during the add to cart flow (I'd expect it on the item page)? Thanks

We read https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/7237-stock-conversion-sell-by and this. 

[EastRace]

EDIT: yes you can add stock conversions and as long as you add a price on that variation, it will be online.