thread Re: How To Set Up Automatic "Buy Item A, Get Other Items Free" Discount in Payments Troubleshooting

How To Set Up Automatic "Buy Item A, Get Other Items Free" Discount

theforgottenimp — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 10:51:34 GMT

Hi all,

I've tried searching but wasn't able to find an answer, so apologies if this has been repeated elsewhere.

Our business occasionally runs promotions where buying a specific item, lets call it Item A, qualifies you for a choice of 2nd item for free. This second item can be any item at any price point from any one of several categories of item.

I'm currently trying to set up an automatic discount for this scenario but am hitting a brick wall. I've set up the discount as follows.

Discount Amount Type: Percentage
Value: 100%

Automatic Discount is toggled On

When customer purchases any 1 item from Item A

If I then configure the rest of the discount using either "Exact Quantity" or "Minimum Quantity" the 100% discount is being applied to Item A, not the actual qualifying item from Category X.

If I use the "Buy One, Get One" option, then the discount is only being applied to items from Category X if they are cheaper than Item A, not simply if they exist in Category X.

Is there any way to automate this scenario or am I out of luck here?

Re: How To Set Up Automatic "Buy Item A, Get Other Items Free" Discount

Breffni — Thu, 22 Feb 2024 10:36:24 GMT

Hi @theforgottenimp thanks for your post and for the details.

I have been doing some testing. Just to confirm, are these discounts for in-person or online sales?

I used the following steps to create a Buy One Get One Free discount and I managed to get a £10 item free in a £1 transaction.

To get started:

Visit Items > Discounts in your online Square Dashboard.
Click Create a Discount and add a name and discount amount.
Toggle on Auto-Apply to Items and Categories.
Click Quantity.
Add the required quantity and select the items or categories you want to include.
Toggle on Discount rules. You’ll have three options for setting up your quantity discount:
- Exact Purchase Quantity
- Minimum Purchase Quantity
- Buy One, Get One
Select exact or minimum quantity, and save the discount. If you select buy one, get one, specify the quantity and items the buyer will receive at a discount, and then click Save.

Here's a look at my settings below and then the in-person transaction, let me know if you can check if your settings look similar:

Re: How To Set Up Automatic "Buy Item A, Get Other Items Free" Discount

theforgottenimp — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 18:07:34 GMT

Hi @Breffni

Thanks for the reply. I should have mentioned that to begine with, but this would be for in-person sales only.

I've been a little busy over the weekend, but I'll duplicate your settings on my side ASAP, test the results and report back.

Re: How To Set Up Automatic "Buy Item A, Get Other Items Free" Discount

theforgottenimp — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 22:53:29 GMT

Hi @Breffni

I've just copied your set up and duplicated what you're seeing, but its not quite what I'm looking for.

I was initially trying to be a quite general in my question so that it might be applicable or applied to other users, but I think I'll need to be specific to clarify what I'm trying to do. I probably should have done that from the start. Sorry!

As part of occasional stock clearnaces, we run a lucky dip. An entry into this guarentees the customer a free item from a category based on the ticket number they draw. For example, a low ticket number might allow them to choose a bookmark, while a high ticket number might allow them to choose a t-shirt. Both of these categories, bookmarks and t-shirts, and the items within them remain available for sale as normal.

So, I'm trying to make the discount on these categories only apply when the customer has also purchased the lucky dip.

Using your settings above I can have a lucky dip entry and a prize on the same sale with the correct discount.

However, if I add just the test items to the sale, they are still being discounted. In this scenario they should be charged as normal.

In other words, adding the lucky dip item should trigger the discount being applied to any items added after that.

I've read this back a few times and I think this makes sense. I hope it does!

Thanks for any help on this.