How can I use multiple shipping rate profiles for the same items please?

[StephenPassmore]

I have a new book I am launching and the shipping costs differ depending on destination, so I want to have at least 3 shipping rate options customers can access depending on their location (e.g. UK, Europe, Rest of World). At the moment I have been able to set up a single profile for UK, but when I go to set up new profiles I cannot select the book item. Please help! I contacted the Square team last week but haven't heard anything back from them.

Thank you

[TheRealChipA]

Hi @StephenPassmore.. Well, I have to admit that I needed to see it to believe it.  So I tried to create multiple shipping profiles for the same item going to different countries.  Sure enough, once I have an item in one profile, I can't choose it for any other profiles.

I fired up Square AI to ask it about this.  It implied that this was possible and referred me to this help document.  There are no restrictions about items in multiple profiles mentioned, however.  So this presents a quandary.  It might be a bug, and it might be an undocumented restriction.

On the chance that it is a bug, I'm tagging the Community moderators and asking them to check with the team and see if this restriction is intentional, or not.  If it is not, are they aware of the bug and working on it?  If the moderators inform us this is intentional and a real restriction, then you'll need to submit a feature request here.  But, hold off on that for the moment.

In the short-term, I can only think of one less-than-perfect workaround.  It would be to create three items, one for each destination country.  If you are doing inventory tracking through Square, you'd need to divide your stock-on-hand between them, for now.  Then, when one is getting close to zero, you can move inventory around so that it doesn't show out of stock in your store.  Like I said -- It's not perfect, but it would get you up and running.

Best of luck with the book launch.

[TheRealChipA]

@Kassi_@RSosebee1@_Violet@MayaP@Summer2024@Summer2024@Ellie_@Katie_SQ@Laurie_@Sammie_C

Please review my post/response above to @StephenPassmore's question.  The issue they report doesn't seem right -- it's either a bug or the documentation needs to be updated.  It would be nice to know what the engineers think so that @StephenPassmore can proceed accordingly.  Thanks!

[StephenPassmore]

Hi @TheRealChipA Thanks so much for looking at this, really appreciate the details (Whilst I've had my website for a couple of years I'm new to this community so grateful for help and guidance). Fingers crossed to hear back from the community moderators and the team soon, but otherwise thanks for the suggested work around. I'll do it if needed but as you say it's less than ideal (and could be a little confusing for customers)

Thanks again 🙂

[TheRealChipA]

@StephenPassmore You're welcome.  I'm happy you are finding the Community to be a valuable resource.  In my opinion, resources like this are the best sort of help.  Documentation and support teams are good, but they lack the real-world experience that many of us have with Square over more than a decade.  That's my way of saying that when you find you have the time, come here and look at the unanswered questions.  If there are a few you can offer help and insights for, please do so.

One more thing.  I don't know if you've tried out Square AI.  If you haven't, one of its core features is help.  It has been trained on the Square help resources and, by and large, is very helpful in that arena.  I use it a lot to help me figure out how to assist fellow sellers here, especially with parts of the Square ecosystem I do not use.

After we've heard from a moderator, I'll add any further thoughts on this subject I might have.