Customers can add unlimited quantities of a limited-stock item to cart on Square Online

[RencArt]

Hi everyone,

I’ve noticed an issue on my Square Online store and wanted to check if others have experienced the same thing.

I have several unique, one-of-a-kind items, each with only 1 available in stock (inventory tracking is enabled in my Square Dashboard). However, on the product page, customers are still able to increase the quantity in their cart beyond the available stock for example, they can add 2, 3, or more of an item even though I only have 1 in inventory.

When they reach checkout, Square does show a warning saying that the quantity exceeds available inventory (“has exceeded available inventory, please adjust quantity to continue checkout”), and they can’t complete the purchase so the stock control technically works, but the problem is that customers can still add multiple units to the cart before that.

Here’s what I’ve already checked:

• ✅ Inventory tracking is enabled for the item (quantity set to 1).

• ✅ “Track inventory in Square” is turned on in the Online settings.

• ⚠️ Issue persists across browsers and devices.

I’d like to know if there’s a way to:

1. Prevent customers from adding more than the available quantity directly on the product page (e.g., disable the “+” button once the limit is reached), or

2. Confirm if this is expected behavior in Square Online and only enforced at checkout.

Any insights, best practices, or workarounds (custom code, app integration, etc.) would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance

[tessa]

Their response to me in the thread I created below. People are going to be very unhappy once they discover this. Those that sell one of a kind items anyway. 

I'm officially done with square. I'm glad I discovered this more before I went with a terminal for my upcoming physical location though. 

"I checked in with our Account Services team on this and they said that this would be considered a Feature Request at this time, as we have the option to limit the quantity per order at checkout.

I am sorry to hear that this change has affected your businesses negatively, and please feel free to send over any other feedback you may have and I would be happy to send it over to our corresponding feedback teams in the meantime."

[Winterbrook]

If anyone has turned this into a feature request (to return to how it worked before they updated) can you link it please? I’ve searched but cannot find anything relating to this issue, so if you’ve added it let me know so we can vote for it. Every little helps I am hoping.

[tessa]

And it's sit in feature dustbin. I've requested so many standard features. They really don't listen. 

I wish you good luck. This is the last issue for me. Time to test others out. 

[Winterbrook]

Yes I fear you are right.

it looks like lots of artisan makers didn’t move over to Square for paid subscription e-commerce so it’s a good warning to anyone thinking it will work well for them if considering it.

I will just have to keep going as I have now paid up on a plan and bought a couple of terminals to keep my stock up to date (ironic). Being able to track and scan items for webshop and physical shop integration was why I chose Square in the first place - big mistake now!

Anyway not that it makes any difference but this was the response from my support email and I would take it with a pinch of salt if your previous interaction with Square support was anything to go by….

“Thank you for sharing the community thread link and for explaining how this update is affecting your business. I completely understand how disruptive it is when customers can add unlimited quantities of items that should be limited, especially when you’re selling one?off products.

We’re aware of this issue following the recent Square Online update, and our engineering team is actively investigating. In the meantime, here are a couple of steps you can take to help reduce the impact:

Temporary workarounds:

• Double?check that inventory tracking is enabled for each item in your Item Library.

• Set the stock quantity to 1 for one?off items, and ensure “Track Stock” is switched on.

• If customers are still able to add more than the available quantity, you can temporarily mark the item as “Sold Out” once purchased to prevent overselling.”

[tessa]

Interesting. It seems their customer support tiers are lacking.

No that's the way it used to be. You set the quantity and track. It simply wasn't working so I came here to post to see if others were experiencing this. I searched first and found this thread before posting a new one. 

I also went to one of the commenter's sites to test out the cart. I couldn't reduce the quantity and had to delete just delete the cart items author altogether and start over. Is wouldn't shop there if that happened on someone's site. 

Bottom line is I had issues with square right before the holidays last year. And because of a rough year (life stuff,) I've kept ordering closed since really. It's just the last straw this time. Again I'm glad I haven't spent money or a lot of time. I did love the look though. I did with on that. Most of my sales were using the card reader but they've lost my business. I'm sure they'll never notice a small business like mine. I'm so glad I hadn't purchased a terminal yet. 

[tessa]

It seems they don't plan to fix this issue they've caused. Once others figure it out that also sell one of a kind items I imagine they won't be pleased. 

I used their reader far more than online sales, but was testing this platform to eventually get a terminal for my physical location. 

Time for me to look elsewhere.

Here's their response to me in the other thread. 

"I checked in with our Account Services team on this and they said that this would be considered a Feature Request at this time, as we have the option to limit the quantity per order at checkout.

I am sorry to hear that this change has affected your businesses negatively, and please feel free to send over any other feedback you may have and I would be happy to send it over to our corresponding feedback teams in the meantime."