thread Is my best solution to simply have a separate listing for in-person and online sales? in Online Store

Is my best solution to simply have a separate listing for in-person and online sales?

charmandstrange — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 17:58:52 GMT

I sell physical goods at craft fairs and farmer's markets. I only keep a handful of each item in stock, and not always every color option. For years now, I've used Square exclusively for my in-person market sales and Etsy for online sales. I meticulously track my stock in Square for in-person sales. If my Item Library section says I have 6 of something, then I have 6 of them, and I can decide whether that's enough or if I need to make more before my next in-person market. Over on Etsy, I list everything as "made to order" with a 3-5 day turnaround time (though I'm usually able to fulfill orders within a day). Etsy still requires that I list how many are in stock, so I always update it to 99 so that I can have as many online sales of every color option as possible. (I guess it's worth noting that I have an average of 1 sale per month. I don't sell a lot of anything online, I just aspire to.)

I'm working on switching over to Square fully. I would like to still offer most of my inventory as "made to order" online. Right now, since it's the off season for farmer's markets, I'm out of stock of a lot of items. But I want people to be able to order them online, as long as they know it's not ready to go immediately.

So far, I'm gathering that my options are:

Stop inventory tracking, which would allow for unlimited online sales but ruin my ability to track stock for in-person markets
Set inventory to negative, which would still allow for online and POS sales but still ruin the ability to track my stock
Do my best to make a certain quantity of everything in every color option and hope that I don't sell out before I have a chance to restock (my goods are crocheted, so batch-making is physically impossible. Making 10 of everything is doable, but it would take me weeks to have it all ready for the online shop.)
Duplicate my listings, and have one version be inventory tracked and only visible at my POS, with the other version not inventory tracked and visible only online. This sounds.... exhausting to setup and manage.

My ideal option would be 5) allow sales of "sold out" items online, with a set turnaround time that I make clear somewhere on my site. (whether that's per listing or on my About page doesn't matter, both options would be fine.) Is this at all possible? I've definitely sold an item marked as "sold out" in person before when my physical count had been incorrect, and the Square app didn't fight me on it. It changed my inventory to -1 and I was easily able to adjust it back up once I had restocked. Why can't I allow this for online sales?

I understand that a common solution would be to do a preorder mode, but I don't make items that way. The focus of my business really is on-demand/made-to-order, I simply don't generate enough hype to warrant a typical preorder with a "product drop date."

Edit: almost forgot to add a link to my shop! It's https://charmandstrangecrochet.square.site/s/shop. Definitely a work in progress at the moment, I don't have proper photos of everything since a lot of it was never listed on my Etsy shop.

Re: Is my best solution to simply have a separate listing for in-person and online sales?

DinaLRosenberg — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 19:21:29 GMT

HI!

this is a really great question and I know that Square has a pre-order option which could work in your case for made-to-order goods.

More details here; https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/8285-sell-items-as-preorders-with-square-online

I do not think you can mix within a listing though.

For example, looking at your twisted headband- you have color variations and thinking what if you have in-stock black and blue but need to make pink to order- I don't THINK you can do both (anyone know)?

We have 1,000 products on our website and some items are made-to-order (like our carved candles). We do what you do on etsy- list an item with 99 stock even though we don't have them made.

Wondering if you separate your listings.... not exactly like you suggest- but having your best sellers stocked and the rest setup made to order through the website?

Re: Is my best solution to simply have a separate listing for in-person and online sales?

Mailam — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 19:46:29 GMT

The simplest solution is to create two listings for each item: one tracked for in-person sales in your POS, and one untracked for online orders. Mark online items as “made-to-order” with your turnaround time clearly noted. This lets you keep accurate stock for markets while still selling items online even when your physical inventory is low.

Re: Is my best solution to simply have a separate listing for in-person and online sales?

charmandstrange — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 21:02:02 GMT

That's what I was thinking I'd have to do. It feels daunting, but at least there's a Duplicate option under listing Actions to make that a little speedier!