Should I add items to my Square Online website, or the Item Library in my Square Dashboard?

[notjustjournals]

The title of this post has been edited from the original: adding inventory

Currently have a weebly website and a square account. Where should I add my inventory?

[Valentina]

Welcome to Square and the Seller Community, @notjustjournals! ✨

Let's start with a quick question back to you - do you plan to sell all of your product directly through your website, or will you also be selling your inventory in-person using the Square Point of Sale app?

[notjustjournals]

Yes, I am hoping to be able to continue selling my products at craft shows some time in the future. I am setting up my website to sell since most shows have been cancelled due to the pandemic. I set up one item in my Square Inventory but it didn't allow for a photo. I have about half my inventory ready (photos and descriptions) to upload to my website. 

[lgurasich]

I'm adding all my inventory in the Item List in Dashboard.  Our sale starts Oct 4 and runs for 3 weeks.  I'm trying to get everything there and ready.  It's my understanding that I don't publish until I'm ready to sell.  Is that right?  If so, I can't enter items from the website yet.  I can't get into the website until it's published, I'm assuming.  Is there a way to see an alpha list of items in Dashboard after I've entered a new item?  I've had to leave and come back in to see it alphabetized.

[sayra]

Hey @lgurasich.

Welcome back to our Seller Community! 

Happy to hear that you are getting ready for your new business adventure. When it comes to your Square Online Store, you can add your items into your item library without publishing your site, you can also preview your site before you decide to start selling your items. 

Our Square Online Store does not have the ability to organize items in alphabetical order on the back end but items will appear newest to oldest in your item library. 

Let me know if you have any other questions.

[Valentina · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the extra info here @notjustjournals!

I'd recommend adding all of your product information and item images to your website, especially if you have multiple images for each item. You can upload multiple images per item when creating and editing items on your website. You will only be able to upload one image per item if you create your items in your Square Dashboard. 

Before you start uploading, you'll want to turn image sync on - this will automatically add the primary image uploaded to your website to the corresponding items in your Square Dashboard (or vice versa). To enable this option, go to your website editor, then click Settings > Square Sync. You'll want to toggle ON the Sync product images setting here.

Once you've toggled this ON, you'll see a pop-up window, like the one shown below. Again, especially if you want to display multiple images per item, I recommend selecting the Use my online store as the primary image source option.

You also may want to consider toggling OFF the Sync item descriptions setting, if you'd like to be able to bold, italicize, or add bulleted/numbered lists to your product descriptions on your website.

Just as an FYI: You should be able to add images to your items in your Item Library - taking a peek at the video in this article will get you where you need to be if you ever need to add images there.

[lgurasich]

To do this from the website, don't I have to have it published first?  I don't want to publish it before the sale starts on Oct 4.

[AdamB]

Not at all, @lgurasich. You can add your items and set inventory for those, and even get all of your online store built out and still wait to actually publish it until you are ready.

[lgurasich]

OK.  I think my problem is that I don't have any prices on the items yet.  This is a plant sale and will have different sizes, like 4", 1 gallon, etc.  Until people deliver the plants to us, I don't know exactly what I'm getting, only what I've been promised.  So I'm entering the plant name and waiting until I have the item before I put the size, number of items, and prices.  Until I do that, I don't think I can see it on the website.

[AdamB]

Ahh, yes, that makes sense. Are you adding the item in Square or within Square Online? I thought we had made the price field required.

[lgurasich]

Adam,

I'm adding the items in my dashboard.  That's how I started and I've just continued it.  I'm afraid I'll have to publish to try the website out once I get some of the prices in and then unpublish to finish and refine things.  

I don't know of any other way to do it.  You sent me to a link to get information on how to hide the database but I didn't know where to go once I followed the link.  There were lots of options.  

Linda

[AdamB]

I read your earlier post again about receiving plants and not knowing how many you'll have until you get them; did you to hide the item from your online store until you have that information? Items can be made unavailable from the online store, so you could make the item unavailable until you actually get the plants and then update them before making them visible to customers. If you edit the item in Items > Item Library you will see the visibility option there.

[lgurasich]

I haven't published so everything is hidden at this point.  I can't publish until the sale has started on Oct 4.  I was hoping I could do something to try it out before publishing but that doesn't seem to be an option.  At this point I have the plants listed, descriptions and photos but I'm awaiting the final inventory which will include sizes and numbers.  Once I get that info in I'll be ready to try it out.  So, I'm planning on publishing for an hour, trying a sale, unpublishing.  Once I'm convinced it's working, I'll be ready to publish on the 4th.  Unless you have a suggestion that's better, I think that's what I have to do.

[lgurasich]

Adam, I'm still struggling with this and I have a week to get this ready!  I'm working in my dashboard.  Not published.  I've entered over 100 items that we will be selling online only.  My items are there with descriptions and photos.  This weekend our inventory is coming in so that we will know exactly what we have, in what sizes, etc.  I'm ready to enter that into the item.  I don't see how to do that?  If I click on an item, I scroll down to variations and can put in sizes but it won't let me put a number for the amount I have.  If I put in a variation and a price, I click on stock and there isn't a way to enter a number.  Surely this is an easy process.

[lgurasich]

On more thing.... I've watched the videos on Managing items and Inventory.  That isn't helping.  The inventory numbers are already set in those videos.  I can't get the initial inventory set.  

[Rudbeckia]

I have use the square/weebly for our online menu system for our winery.

I can help you with the inventory issue. 

1. Go to your online items in Weebly and open one - go down until you see the variation and the pricing, etc.

2 You will see the variation name and then a blue dash to the right of each variation under the column "Stock" click on the blue dash and it  will open a window that says "Update Stock"

3. Slide the "Track Stock" button to on.

4. There is a drop down that says "Select a restocking preference update"

5. Choose ""stock received"  and then enter your count and then select "Update Stock"

text me at 231-881-2231 if you have questions. 

I personally know how frustrating it can be when you have a deadline and you can't get answers quickly.

[Joe]

We definitely hear you here, @lgurasich - and I appreciate the specific feedback. There have been quite a few edits on our side in the past few months in regards to Online Store settings and abilities to accommodate for COVID protocols and features. Can definitely agree that there is room for improvement in communicating the fine details of how specific settings function.

I am passing your feedback over directly to our Product Teams and Ecomm specialists. Thanks again for adding your voice here. Really appreciate you! 

[ptrkfav]

This reply was created from merging an existing thread: Can I add photos of items?

Is it possible to add photos to items?

[Valentina]

There are two places you're able to add photos to your items, and I've outlined them both here, @ptrkfav.

You can add photos to your items within the Item Library within your Square Online Dashboard or the Item Library of your Square Dashboard, but they're a little different so read above to learn more!

[Rudbeckia]

You will need to update items in both places if you plan to sell through POS and online. You will need to make sure your taxes are correct in the POS as online does not use this field and it defaults to none. This is a bug (in my opinion).  If you want to use category reporting in square you will need to input this in POS because that field does not exist in the online side. 

[Joe]

Thanks for stepping in to assist here, @Rudbeckia. 

The Online Store will require its own tax settings, which allows for full customization and tailoring between in-person and online sales. 

Again, thanks for assisting your fellow Sellers. Appreciate you!