How to give away an item?

[MarkSpiegelman]

Hello,

I operate a grab-and-go refrigerator stocked with about a dozen items for customers to choose from. When a new customer comes in and purchases an item, I’d like to include a second item for free so they can try it.

All orders are typically placed in person at a kiosk. It’s straightforward to add items to the cart from the on-screen menu, but I’m unsure how to mark one of those items as “free” and still have the sale finalize correctly while deducting it from my inventory.

Is there a way to do this in a single transaction, or would I need to process a second transaction for the free item? If so, how should I set that up?

Thank you for any advice,

—Mark

[TheRealChipA]

Hi there @MarkSpiegelman.  The easiest way to accomplish this is to create a 100% discount code.  You can even give it an advanced setting to require a manager/owner code for it.  Then when you add an item to a transaction, scroll all the way to the bottom of the item detail screen and you’ll see the capability to attach that discount to the item being comped.

[MarkSpiegelman]

Hi Chip,

Thank you for the tips. I did not find that working in my environment. First, when an item is ordered on a Kiosk, the only option appears to be to adjust the quantity of the item, which is added to the cart. The only option then is to pay. No discounts or coupons are offered, again on the Kiosk. I looked into the Kiosk options in Square and found no options to add a discount or coupon option.

The behavior on a POS does show the discount that I can toggle on. Mine is called "Complimentary," and the discount is 100%. The problem is that as I add additional items to the cart, even though I do not toggle on the discount, it is applied to all items in the cart. So, adding a discount to one item automatically applies to all items in the cart. What might I be missing here?

-Mark

[MarkSpiegelman]

Chip,

On the POS, I found where to select the item and modify that specific item for the discount while allowing the remaining items to remain as paid items.  

I wish there were a way to apply a discount on the Kiosk. Thanks -Mark

[TheRealChipA]

@MarkSpiegelman since kiosk is a customer-facing device, being able to enter discounts on it would open us up to fraud.  That’s being said, doesn't kiosk allow coupons to be used? if so, you’d just want to be sure to define the coupon with a limit of one time use 

[TheRealChipA]

@MarkSpiegelman What I just still would still have problems.  You are wanting to limit the discount to being used when a select set of items is purchased, first.  So, coupons would not work either.

That circles us back around to the fact that you will either have to add the discount after the order is paid for, or you will have to ring up the free item on your POS and discount it.  Sorry for the confusion.  I did not know when I initially replied that kiosk was involved.

[TheRealChipA]

@MarkSpiegelmanLastly, I see now that coupons don’t work on kiosk either, as you said.  WOW.  I messed up replying to you in a few ways.  My apologies.  Kiosk is new and I guess I need to familiarize myself with it much more!

[MarkSpiegelman]

Yes, there is no joy at the Kiosk, but there could be, in the future, discounts—items secured with a passcode, just like on the POS devices.  So, the result here is that I need to ring them up separately on a POS for any giveaways.  It's workable.  Thanks!

[TheRealChipA]

@MarkSpiegelman This is worth a feature request in my book. Please head over to the Ideate Board and submit one to the Point of Sale team, since there is no kiosk board there yet. 

When you’ve done that, please come back here and post a link to it. I will enthusiastically support it with my vote and comments.