Try the upcoming Simplified Item Creation flow — feedback wanted!

[alexws]

Hi Square sellers!

My name is Alex, and I'm on the product team for Items. As you may have seen in the Spring Releases announcement in May, we've been working on a Simplified Item Creation Flow in Dashboard that makes it easier to get your items ready to sell in-store, online, and via third party channels. We've built an early access experience that you can test out to get a preview of the new item creation flow and leave us feedback before we start rolling this update out soon. We'd love to get your input!

Get Started

To get started, log into Square Dashboard and click on or paste this URL into your browser: https://app.squareup.com/dashboard/items/library/react/new/v2

How the early access experience works: 

• Clicking the URL will open up the early access experience. Any items you create with this early access experience will get saved to your Item Library.
• There are no limits on how many times you can try the early access experience, so please create as many items as you like! You'll just need to click the link each time, as there are no in-product entry points to this early access experience at this time.
• Some features are not ready yet, such as: Upgrading to paid features, Event and Donation type items, the ability to Auto Create items by scanning a barcode or searching by name, and Bundles. 

Please feel free to provide feedback directly within the early access experience, or leave a comment in this thread! We would love to hear from you and get your honest feedback on what works well and what you think needs attention. 

Thank you!

Alex

[Cobbles]

One extra feature I'd like to see (after all the missing variation fields have been added back in) is the ability to duplicate a variation and all its fields.

[Cobbles]

It's good that you now have to enter a variation name for a new item (rather than the hidden value of "Regular"), but it's a bit hidden away under Variations. How about putting it on the main page? Many items won't have more than one variation.

[Cobbles]

Weight is missing from the inputs.

[Cobbles]

Is this change just for adding new items or will the Edit Item screen be changing as well?

If the Edit Item screen remains unchanged, at least the information not on the new Create Item screen can be added from there (though this would be a backward step and less efficient).

[Cobbles]

It's not possible to set different images for variations?

[Cobbles]

@alexws Is anybody looking at these responses any more?

Do you have any idea when an updated form will be available to try out?

[Cobbles]

Hello? Is there anybody there?

Can we have a rollout update please?

[alexws]

Hi @Cobbles, thank you for the feedback you've shared — it's much appreciated.

1. Duplicating a variation isn't supported but I've passed this along to the team as an idea for future improvements. 

2. Can you please elaborate on the requirement to input a variation name for an item without variations? In the new flow we don't require the creation of variations — you should be able to just create a new item by inputting a name for the item at the top of the form without also adding variations to the item.

3. The Weight field is renamed to Shipping Weight in the new flow, and can be found in the Fulfill Orders section for items without variations (or in the Edit variation modal for items with variations). 

4. Once rolled out, this new flow will be available for both creating new items and editing existing items. 

5. Adding an image for each variation is still supported in the new flow, but there is currently an issue the team is working on fixing where an image applied to a variation doesn't display on the create item page. 

6. We've started rolling out the new flow to sellers in phases and expect the new flow to reach most sellers soon. 

Thank you!

[Cobbles]

Hi @alexws 

Thanks for getting back to me.

I hope the new form will address all the issues raised, particularly input of all data for variations - it would be good to see a modified version before it's rolled out, as it's so important to us and everyone else that existing functionality isn't missing or compromised (which has sadly happened more than once with "updates" in other areas).

Regarding point 2 about variation names - if I don't open the variations popup and enter a name for the first variation I get the message

So I have to open the variations popup and enter a variation name

Thanks

[Cobbles]

@alexws   Is there anybody there? It would be good to get a response on something so important to all users of Square.

[Cobbles]

I see the latest version of the form addresses the concerns about variation details to a degree.

However, the way variations work has changed.

- If I add a new item but DON'T ADD any variation details, then the item variation name defaults to the hidden value of  "Regular" which has always been a pain. I can change this on the current form but not on the new one. This is a backward step.

- If I do add a variation, then the first variation I add becomes the "default" variation. On the current form if I add a variation, I would have 2 separate items, but I only have 1 on the new form. This could be more intuitive as I see that the price and other fields are removed from the main form and all input moves to the variations. HOWEVER, the Vendor cannot be set in the variations data.

Are we going to be able to see the revised Item Editing form before this goes live? I hope so, as this is a big area that needs user feedback before implementation. 

[rtfulk]

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, for giving us the ability to add more columns, my workflow has just increased tremendously.

[Cobbles]

But no ability to set the Vendor yet.

[rtfulk]

If you click the select all box in Variations, then click update and select update unit cost. From there you can add a vendor.

[Cobbles]

Thanks @rtfulk - or just click on the variation name to bring up full details for it. That's looking a lot better now.

[rtfulk]

I think they are adding new features on a daily/weekly basis now. I saw this week that we can now 5 windows in the Variations section, which helps me a lot.  Also a few weeks ago they brought back the Google SEO features. It's a little tricky to find it and use it.  When you are adding a item it will not show up, but after you save the item and click on the variation, you can then click on Attributes and edit it. I wish you could do it when you make a variation, but I am just glad it's back. Below is a photo of the Google SEO attributes.

[sanjosegrocery]

Allow us to count by different units, and to have multiple units per variation instead of multiple units across multiple variations. Need more focus and help for Square retail customers 

[WST90]

Thanks for sharing this, Alex! I just tried it out, love how much simpler it feels already. We sell food items both in-store and only some online, so the new flow definitely helps streamline setup.

The only part that confused me was under Channels — it felt like a duplicate step having to click “online” and then also manage visibility separately. For some reason, several items were automatically added to my online store, and I had to go through and adjust the visibility one by one.

Overall, it’s a great improvement and I’m excited to see the final version once everything’s fully rolled out!