Inventory & Catalog Management- So Frustrating- Need Recommendations

[DinaLRosenberg]

I am looking for help here. We have a wide variety of products- almost 1,00- individual products, and lots of overstock. Our storage areas are dynamic and always moving around as inventory flows in and out of the store. So where overstock is on a Tuesday, for example, may no longer be there on a Wednesday to make room for a larger shipment. 

We also cross-merchandise.. so a product may be in two different locations on the selling floor and there is no way to store THAT information or even log how many of what are located where (to see where an item sells better). 

We are having an incredibly difficult time memorializing where overstock inventory is located. We are DESPERATE to have this information reside in Square. We have been begging and pleading for a notes function in items for YEARS! 

Today one of my employees didn't restock some items because "she couldn't find them".. if there was a place within Square she could look this information up- I would have saved SO MUCH TIME. Instead I had to stop what I was doing to locate the inventory.

I literally never get a day off because I am the encyclopedia of the store. I WANT THIS KNOWLEDGE OUT OF MY BRAIN. I don't understand why it is so difficult for Square to undersign why the notes function is imperative. 

[#2]

Hi there again, @DLRosenberg - Thank you for your patience here. Additionally, I've moved your post over to the Square for Retail Ideate Board, so we can monitor the progress of this feature request.

I received a response from the Product Development Team for Square for Retail. They let me know that their planned work on custom attributes will unblock you from capturing location data on an item level (note: this will be at the item, not the variation level). This will also give you the ability to look up this information on your Point of Sale. We'll have a solution to help capture location information for items without specifically using a "notes" section. Their team plans to release these features within the next year, although there is not an exact ETA at this time.

I hope this information is helpful but please do let me know if you have any additional questions.

[_Violet]

Hi @DinaLRosenberg  - Thanks for reaching out to us here on the Square Seller Community to bring this to our attention. I'm sorry to hear your frustration 😔

I'm going to consult with the Square for Retail team on this one to get the best answer for you. I'll reach back out to you here once I gather more info.

I appreciate your patience in the meantime 🙏

[DinaLRosenberg]

Violet- thanks so much- I appreciate you. I'm literally at my whits end to try and organize our inventory.. location of where overstock is or where located on the floor is so important.. even helpful for employee accountability to notate different touch-points as well (i.e.- when something was restocked, etc)

[_Violet]

Hi there again, @DLRosenberg - Thank you for your patience here. Additionally, I've moved your post over to the Square for Retail Ideate Board, so we can monitor the progress of this feature request.

I received a response from the Product Development Team for Square for Retail. They let me know that their planned work on custom attributes will unblock you from capturing location data on an item level (note: this will be at the item, not the variation level). This will also give you the ability to look up this information on your Point of Sale. We'll have a solution to help capture location information for items without specifically using a "notes" section. Their team plans to release these features within the next year, although there is not an exact ETA at this time.

I hope this information is helpful but please do let me know if you have any additional questions.

[TCSlaguna]

Oooo.... Custom Attributes is great to have for Author name as well. I don't like the Author's name to be in the Title or Description, so a separate field is great to have! 

[ehflower]

looking forward to this.  thank you

[Candlestore]

This is really needed a way to keep track of inventory that is not out on the retail floor for sale but used for stocking shelves.

I have 1 location but 4 plus areas of storage for inventory.  In those 4 areas could be multiple areas also.  For example my basement storage has 5 rooms an 1 crawl space, attic has about 5 areas.... the building has 20,000 sq ft when including attic and basement plus areas where we make our candles we also have some storage areas.... This is just 2 storage areas mentioned plus 2 Barns out back for Candle holders and non heat sensitive items.  Some of these items are only 2 inches by 2 inches withing a 1200 sq foot barn.   We have storage racks with bays and bins in them that are numbered but no place to have them in Square.  I have been using the Description fields for this but that is not ideal.    

Here are other requests for this in the community forum and how to track Items in the storage areas.

https://www.sellercommunity.com/t5/Square-Point-of-Sale/Locations-and-Inventory/td-p/658962 

https://www.sellercommunity.com/t5/Square-for-Retail/Backroom-vs-Sales-Floor-Inventory-Location/td-p... 

https://www.sellercommunity.com/t5/Square-for-Retail/Inventory-Management-Transfer-from-Storage-Room... 

https://www.sellercommunity.com/t5/Square-for-Retail/Tracking-Bin-Aisle-for-inventory/td-p/23182 

This is helpful in ANY inventory systems for tracking where your inventory is not just at a physical street address like a retail establishments address.  That would be like saying your spare batteries for your remote is at your house.... and you have a 16000 sqft house and put them there 3 months ago.   Which room are they in?  Are they in a Drawer?  Maybe a Box in a closet?  But if you had access to a computer and you put it in the Guest bedroom in the closet on the shelf in Box 5.... now you know where to search at least.   

Here is what I find is helpful for setting up storage locations for my one site.

https://youtu.be/mipXk5E1ujg?si=JZ6-olrznzAb-Duu 

So I have Basement-room 5- row 3-colmumn 4- shelf B

I have signs thet show which rrom you enter 1-5 and all even rows run North south and all odd rows run East west.  This was easy since the road I am on is 209 (odd) so all rows that run parallel to 209 are odd.   Just wish I could assign these bin locations in Square.... Just one more column in the Square catalog csv file.

[hopemajor]

This would be very helpful! We are constantly marking items "lost" during inventory counts simply because employees cannot find the items that are displayed in multiple spots in the store (we have a backroom, freezer, walk-in fridge, sales floor, and a shed where we store our items). 

[DinaLRosenberg]

We waste SO MUCH TIME looking for inventory.