Manage Square Online Item Settings from Your Item Library
From your Square Item Library, you can adjust several item settings as they relate to your Square Online websites, including site item visibility, prep times for online ordering, online fulfilment and more. Take a look at each one below.
For information on other item settings beyond Square Online, check out creating and managing items online.
Edit Items in Square Online
To view and edit existing items from your site item catalog:
From your Square Item Library, select an existing item.
Under “Square Online settings”, select Edit in Square Online.
This will take you to your Square Online Overview page so you can view the same item from the Items > Site items tab.
Learn more about creating items and categories directly in Square Online to manage additional settings related to fulfilment, SEO and more. You can also learn how to navigate the Square Online Overview page in Dashboard.
Site Item Visibility
Item visibility refers to how and where an item will appear on your website.
To manage site item visibility:
- From your Square Item Library, select an existing item or create a new one.
- Under “Square Online settings”, choose a site visibility setting from the Visibility drop-down menu.
- Select Save when finished.
The item visibility settings will apply to items on every site they’ve been assigned to. For example, if you mark an item as Visible, it’ll be visible on each of your sites where the item is being sold.
The available item visibility settings include:
- Visible: Your item is visible online and available for purchase, and will show up in navigation and site search results.
- Hidden: Your item is available for purchase online but only to those who have a direct link to it (useful for exclusive items).
- Unavailable: Your item isn’t visible online and can’t be purchased, which is useful if you aren’t ready to sell the item.
You can also update visibility for multiple items at once using the
bulk-editing method in Square Online.
Site Item Assignment
Site item assignment refers to which of your websites your item is assigned to. This, in combination with site item visibility, controls where items are available for purchase. For example, in order for an item to be purchasable on your site, it must be both assigned, and visible or hidden. To manage site item assignment:
From your Square Item Library, select an existing item or create a new one.
Under “Square Online settings”, use the toggles to determine which “Online sites” the item should be assigned to.
Select Save when finished.
Note: If you’re using channel integrations such as Google Business Profile or Meta for Business, you can also assign your item to those channels from within the same section.
Fulfilment Methods
In order to sell any of your items online, be sure to indicate how you’ll be fulfilling them when ordered from your website. To start:
From your Square Item Library, select an existing item or create a new one.
Under “Square Online settings”, go to “Fulfilment methods” and click Select.
Use the checkboxes to indicate the fulfilment methods used for that item and click Done.
Select Save when finished.
Item Prep Time
Prep time refers to how long it takes to prepare orders and items for pickup and local delivery. To set up prep times for individual items:
From your Square Item Library, select an existing item or create a new one.
Under “Order timing”, go to “Item prep time” and select Edit.
Toggle off Use location default to enter a custom item prep time. Select Done.
Select Save when finished.
Note: To set up prep times for all pickup and local delivery orders, go to your Account & Settings page > Fulfilment > Pickup & Delivery.
Per-order Quantity Limits
You can limit the number of times a customer can add a single item to their cart per Square Online order. This can help prevent you from selling out of highly demanded items too quickly and make stock easier to manage. For example, if you have a limit of four on a shirt that comes in different variations (think sizes or colours), then the total amount of those variations can’t exceed four in the cart.
To limit the number of times a customer can add a specific item to their cart for a single order:
From your Square Item Library, select an existing item or create a new one.
Under “Square Online settings”, toggle on Enable per-order quantity limits and enter a number in the text field.
Select Save when finished.
Note: To limit the total number of all items a customer can add to their cart for a single pickup or local delivery order, go to your Account & Settings page > Fulfilment > Pickup & Delivery and select Advanced settings.
Sell Items as Preorders
Note: Enable pre-ordering for pickup and delivery by upgrading your Square Online subscription.
If you’re selling items for pickup and local delivery, which are only available on certain dates (holiday specials, for example), your customers can preorder on Square Online and get the items when they become available.
To set up preordering for items set up for pickup and local delivery:
- From your Square Item Library, select an existing item or create a new one.
- Under “Square Online settings”, toggle on Sell as preorder. Note: Your item must have pickup or delivery enabled.
- Select Edit preorder settings to choose the date or date range when the item will be available for pickup or delivery. You can choose any date or time from 24 hours up to 365 days in advance.
- Optionally check Customize fulfilment hours to choose the specific fulfilment hours within the selected date range. For example, if you set the time range as 10 a.m.–2 p.m., buyers can choose only these hours for pickup or delivery on the specified pickup or delivery dates. If you leave this option unchecked, your location’s standard pickup or delivery hours will apply.
- Enter a Preorder cutoff date. This is a date and time after which you’d like to stop taking orders for the item. The item won’t be available to order online after the specified date and time.
You can make changes to your item’s preorder status, edit dates or preorder availability, or turn off preordering at any time.
When you set up preordering, customers will see a badge on your item page showing that the item is available for preorder, as well as the corresponding fulfilment window. When they add the item to their cart and proceed to checkout, they’ll see and can edit the pickup date and time, as well as the location information.
If the customer’s order contains a standard item along with a preorder item, the pickup date will be adjusted to the preorder fulfilment date. They’ll see a notification about this change and can adjust their order, or order separately if they need to pick up the item immediately.
Preordering is for items that are not currently available for purchase, and need to be ordered in advance to be picked up or delivered at some point after the items become available. Preorders are often used to create preliminary excitement about an item pending release.
Scheduling is for items that are already available for purchase, but the customer wants to order and pay now, and schedule the pickup or delivery for a specific time in the future (as long as it’s within your pickup and delivery hours). Scheduling is often used by restaurants, and other food and beverage businesses.
The primary differences between these two ordering techniques are the item availability and the length of time the item can be ordered ahead of the fulfilment date.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Customize how the selected item or category displays on search engines.
To set up item SEO:
- From your Square Item Library, select an existing item or create a new one.
- Under “Square Online settings,” go to “Search engine optimization (SEO)” and click Edit.
- Update the SEO title, description and permalink. Click Done.
- Select Save when finished.
- Publish your site from the Square Online site editor to see your changes live.
To set up category SEO:
- From your Square Item Library, go to Categories to select an existing category or create a new one.
- Under “Search engine optimization (SEO),” update the SEO title, description and permalink.
- Select Save when finished.
- Publish your site from the Square Online site editor to see your changes live.
The three optional SEO fields for site items and categories are:
- SEO title: This title shows in search results. Keep it descriptive but concise.
- SEO description: This text shows along with the title in search results. Your description can be longer than your title to add more information.
- Permalink: A search-engine-friendly link for items and categories with lengthy names.
These fields can also be updated for each item and category page directly in the site editor. Learn how to create pages and navigation in Square Online for more information on webpage settings.
Social Media Links
Customize how you share the selected item on social media. You can edit the link title and description of each item if you want to use different information from your SEO. To start:
From your Square Item Library, select an existing item or create a new one.
Under “Square Online settings”, go to “Social media links” and click Edit.
Update the link title and description. Click Done.
Select Save when finished.
Publish your site from the Square Online site editor to see your changes live.