Recommended workaround to sell variable price items online? (Ideally under/over capture payment)

[EastRace]

We sell meat which varies depending on how much it weighs. If you buy from instacart or DoorDash or your local online grocery they all have a way to buy "1.25lb (approx) T-Bone beef" and you will be charged based on what it actually was.

There seems to be absolutely no way to do this out of the box in Square with Square Online. (Which is so sad because the delivery/in-store-pickup fulfillment options are a really great feature!)

We considered creating N variations of all the items with the exact price. We'll have maybe 4-10 sizes when we restock. Today we print price embedded barcodes with the DeliLabel.app (3rd party, app marketplace). So today each has a unique barcode (UPC-A) with the numeric sku + price encoded in it.

We considered creating several variations at fixed amounts: 1.0 lb, 1.25 lb, 1.5lb, etc. Instacart sometimes does this to let fine-grained selection. Then when fulfilling the store clerk needs to find an item lower that that weight, and manually refund a few cents difference. (Requires manual math, awkward, and need to open permissions for refunds to more staff - non starter). 

- We considered creating an API to listen to every order, and automatically refund - but then we'll need to build a fulfillment tracking app to to know exactly which meat was selected, it's price, and how much to refund. Lot of work.

We looked at options and modifiers, nothing creative we saw there.

The Order at the time of the fulfillment is already paid for, so no native way in Square to modify the Order before payment. That's the desired case. That could allow substituting items, which is common in restaurants too.

Hoping for some tips, please

[TheRealChipA]

Hey @EastRace. Unfortunately, there are not tips using Square tools to do this.  Square Online was not built with this capability in mind and I’ve heard of no plans to make it so.  I’ve thought about your post a lot and can not think of a way to do what you want, currently.  Having said this….

First, there is the Ideate Board where we can submit feature requests to Square.  In your case, you’d want to submit this to the Square Online team.  This will JUST it on their radar and get the ball rolling for an evaluation process where they will decide if it is something they want to add to the product roadmap.  No guarantees, obviously.  

Second, Square has the App Marketplace.  There you will find third-party apps that integrate with your Square account.  I’ve used various ones of these apps over the years, and still do, to fill in the blanks in Square functionality.  Square can’t be everything to everyone and shouldn’t try.  But the App Marketplace allows the Square ecosystem to be expanded by other developers.

Sorry I can’t be more help.

[EastRace]

Sorry I keep trying to reply to you Chip but the Square forum seems to be deleting / moderating my responses. I thank you for your contribution.

[EastRace]

Could the moderator please provide some visibility into why I am getting rejected posts? 

I cannot reply to this with some brainstorm ideas.

[TheRealChipA]

@EastRace.  Ugh.  I’m going to send you a private message now.  Reply to that with your questions.

[EastRace]

Trying to split up these ideas into separate posts to not be moderated.

Brainstorm ideas:
1. Separate no-inventory online item, just with $ variations or LB range variations.
Sell a different item decoupled from the real one. E.g. sell “Thin Ribeye, online order” item with variations $8 to $11.99, $12-17.99, $18-25. Or we could have approximate pound sizes 6-10oz, 10-14oz, 14-18oz and charging $12.49, $17.49, or $24. Don’t track inventory here, zero cost to us (virtual item, we fulfill with another - the real one and refund part of this one). Description explains they will pay the exact amount by refunding any excess. (Square can’t exactly capture the amount at cart picking time).

When we sell this item and an employee goes in the store to pick the exact one they ring up a new order and charge the exact item with an exact price (this item is tracking inventory). And they refund the difference to the card on the order. E.g. buy one for $14.39 in the middle group, that is about 12 oz. So the order charged $17.49 but we refund $3 to the payment. No itemization on the refund (API doesn’t support that anyways, unfortunately. This 2nd payment would need some tender that does not overreport our actual revenue so maybe a house account or something adjusted. (The 2nd order could be by API too e.g. with a little app the person scans the actual fulfilled meat with price on). We just need to use some “fake tender that tracks the revenue for the 2nd order.” Though we’ll overstate revenue if both the online virtual and physical item show up in sales. When we sell in store or online the inventory will be tracked by Square (through the 2nd payment online).

2. Sell in $ ranges online or by 1, 2, 3, ... lbs at a $/lb, and refund the excess.
This would be the same as above, but use the real item and have 3 variations of different price ranges. Always pick under what they paid and do an itemized refund partially when picking the order.
- Problem: not sure if we can do partial refund during fulfillment of a $ amount.
- Problem: not sure how to have 3 variations all track to 1 inventory we receive. I don’t think that is possible.
- In theory we could have an API listening to orders and seeing what was ordered, and then the person picking would need to give information of what actually was packed in their bag. (e.g. simple app we make). The difference would need to be refunded, but it seems that can only be an unitemized refund, so we’d need to manually adjust inventory back. Refund/Inventory issue in this developer forum (link redacted)

[TheRealChipA]

@EastRace I’m emailing this to myself as a reminder for morning. Very long day and my brain isn’t firing on all thrusters. I’ll reread this and will post some comments after a morning cup. 

[EastRace]

I think we may have created an awkward workaround, but it seems to work.

At the time we receive an order from Square Online open it up on Register (hardware, or we tested iOS Retail app).

Open that order and click to transaction details, don't refund anything directly on the fulfillment pages. But initiate a refund/exchange on the order. Exchange the actual meat item sold e.g. 2 lb Sirloin for what we fulfilled the order with, e.g. 1.7lb Sirloin (we scan that with DeliLabel printed price embedded barcodes).

This works.

But it doesn't give the customer a receipt. So be sure to print it out and put on their pickup bag. 

Really wish there was an API to support itemized refunds/exchanges, but there is not as of May 2024.

[ViceKitchen]

 So how are you having a 2lb Sirloin on line as a PER ITEM transaction but then in store I assume you will have a PER POUND Sirloin item that you will pick from the fridge, weigh on scale, print label according to weight and then scan in Square and then get payment.  Are you using two different items for SIRLOIN or do you have a way to have 2 ways(units) to sell the same individual item?

[EastRace]

We sell it online by the pound. Customers can pick how many pounds, and then we modify it once an actual item is picked.