Updates make it harder, not easier to use Square

[Sputt]

• Why is it Square seems to make it harder to to manage your own business on their platform with every update?

it seems square has forgotten about us that are retailers, and now seem to put their main focus on restaurants and online store only. I have been with square for over 11 years, and the last few years are painful to maneuver within square and run my business. 

Just to enter an item it takes more steps and some of the additional required extra steps don’t even work. What used to one click is now over 5 clicks and steps to get into the same place. 
And then you have certain steps that require extra steps like adding an item in a certain category, or adding a variety, or adding a weight or other info for an online item. 
The visibility button moved but the new steps don’t work so they “updated” again to add even more steps just to remove an item from your website.
The customer service people don’t have a clue to what you are talking about when you call and need help figuring out how to now do something that just worked yesterday.
It has just gotten to the point that ready to jump ship! We spend more time trying to figure out where a button went or how to navigate and learn their changes than I have in a day.

And still years later, after so many requests, you can’t make a return or exchange from a split payment on anything but the original form of payment. If it was on a gift card, and another form such as cc or cash, it has to be that exact gift card which in most cases that gift was recycled and now someone else has it, or it got tossed! This is a topic that has been an issue since the beginning and makes it even harder when you set a store policy of all returns will be for exchange or store credit. 
So many things that just make you feel like they don’t care and you are definitely not being heard with your feed back!

Super frustrating

[ehflower]

I feel your frustration,  the square platform is very dynamic - frequently I recite "change is good" before diving into the exploration after announcements.  However, we do try to ask and guide to the best of our ability

FEATURE REQUEST - @katie @LeahK 

Square could create an item template for varying types of Items for sale.  Very much like the invoice templates in Invoice plus (that has made my job faster)

this might streamline entering items into the item library (however, I feel all these toggles do serve a purpose for many of us in varying ways, but it does make it cumbersome and time consuming, I agree)  and put it under the Create Item button with a drop down - (make sure the character line for the title is long I feel this would be helpful for individuals who sell a multitude of products- also choosing how the items display would also be helpful, for example being able to choose the sequence of how these items list -like putting your most used item at the top, we can do this with invoice templates and throughout the year depending on season I shift these around and boy does that make a difference in speed)

For example:

Item type sold in house Physical only template -

Physical good chosen,

have the proper tax assigned, 

no inventory count assigned,

necessary location channels toggles chosen - instore availability only toggle on,

the chosen manage checkout toggles need for item, 

Point of sale necessary toggles,

full fill orders,

SEO necessary toggles,

Social Medial Links

item type sold in house and online template - Physical good, have proper tax assigned, Inventory required to be filled in, location channels assigned-  instore availability and online chosen, the chosen manage checkout toggles need for item,   Online orders necessary toggles, full fill orders, SEO necessary toggles, Social Medial Links

Item type sold in house FOR service items template -  OTHER good chosen, have the NO tax assigned (in our state),  no inventory count assigned, location channels - instore availability only toggle on, the chosen manage checkout toggles need for item,  Point of sale necessary toggles, full fill orders, remove SEO necessary toggles,  remove Social Medial Links

You could even get it where it is very specific... the square forum recently had a query where in a particular state certain size of clothing is tax exempt

for example 

5T and under clothing Tax exempt template -  Physical good chosen, have the proper tax assigned - NO TAX,  yes inventory count assigned, location channels - instore availability only toggle on, the chosen manage checkout toggles need for item,  Point of sale necessary toggles, full fill orders, SEO necessary toggles, Social Medial Links

just a thought

have a great day!

[DinaLRosenberg]

I agree with much of what you're saying. Item entry is ridiculously cumbersome. Some of the fields don't work (i..e. item inventory in the variation screen).

It does seem like focus is on restaurants.. there are many features that help restaurants with their business but, when you think about retail- very little that actually helps us (i.e. inventory location control an true CRM).

[ascoach]

I panicked this morning thinking all was lost when I clicked on the Square Online tab this morning and a new updated page popped up to Start your store.  Luckily after hitting that tab to start your new store, it took me to the edit page of my current store.

It has been frustrating with all the changes.  I do not like the Hidden or Not Hidden option.  If you have a Hidden item, after updating it, you do have to go back in and it make it unhidden to use on your store.

One thing I have found that I love in the item entry is the duplicate button.   If you have any items that are similar you can easily duplicate and then make small changes quickly like the name and category.

One other thing I have found to make it go a little faster; if you use the Variations, you can hit the + and take off any columns you do not use.

[BellaSposa]

I am not a fan of changes.  It takes time to relearn the old thing in the new format.  

After purchasing the whole hardware shebang I was deeply disappointed to discover how cumbersome it was to add products.  (Not to mention that there would be add on costs to actually use parts of it.)  I am in the bridal industry and all gowns come in many sizes and some gowns come in as many as 72 colors.  Every season there are hundreds of new gowns.  Upon doing the math I decided that I would not be adding my inventory.   Each Bridesmaid gown would take 1728 separate entries to add the bunch.  It would actually take a team to simply manage the inventory. After a year of contemplation I am considering if they could be added in an excel spreadsheet and then uploaded to the system.  

I agree with everyone else:  This system does not have brick and mortar, non restaurant retailers functionality in mind or at heart.  

[beefolks1]

It can definitely be uploaded via spreadsheet.  Go to Items and Inventory>Items>Item Library.  Look in the upper right hand corner for "Actions".  One of the options is to upload or download your inventory.  

[lennys26]

It is super frustrating to have non-stop updates and changes. And as mentioned from other users, the product tends to be developing in a more restaurant focused path, although many of the features appear in the “retail” product and are either not relevant, or interesting however non-functional. I can understand the business decision to focus on one market segment or versus another, however the expectation would be that Square make that clear and not muddy the product and, as reported here, break what is working, and what is good about the product. 

Support is pointless, with my experiences regularly finding them to either be not knowledgable on the product, or simply not interested - or both. To that end, functioning as they currently do will only cause more stress and disappointment as the product continues to change direction and focus. 

[Crazyjamlife]

Square was built on the back of retailers - specifically small businesses. Over the past 3 years we have been pushed to the back burner as the company focuses on restaurants. This is quite idiotic as retailers outnumber restaurants across the board. As we see more restaurant closures, I am wondering if Square will return to its roots or just become another obsolete platform. Shopify, on the other hand is starting to build up where Square dropped the ball - allowing retailers to toggle seamlessly between online and in-person sales. Watching to see how all of this plays out with the 8 - 12 updates Square is rolling out every few weeks that do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to help us the users. I hope everyone suffering through the major workload created by the Square updates are starting to seek alternative platforms.

[beefolks1]

As I am getting more into advertising my website, I am finding Square is not the platform for it.  It does not tie in seamlessly to meta like it advertises.  I cannot stack coupons.  I cannot tweak certain aspects of emails, like if I want to send a reminder out after 3 days instead of 5.

On the other hand, the POS sales aspect works well for me, and I love how payroll ties into it all seamlessly, including assigning tips.

There are apps that let you maintain the database in Square, but tie seamlessly to Shopify for online sales.  I will eventually go that route.  And if Shopify ever offers a seamless payroll system, I will probably jump ship.  Shopify can do so much more than Square can.  Options that I was told were in development back when I signed up a few years ago have not actually been released.  They are currently focusing on the restauarant industry.  I need to do what is best for me.