Set up items for your online store
About selling items online
When using Square Online, you can think of your websites as different virtual storefronts where you can set up and customize what items you sell on each of them. To start preparing your items for online selling, you can adjust several settings including item site assignment and visibility, prep times for online orders, preordering, search engine optimization (SEO), social media links and more. This will ensure items sold online are discoverable, and that any online orders can be managed efficiently from your point of sale.
Before you begin
You can set up items for online selling from Square Dashboard.
Be sure to understand how to create and edit items.
So you can use the item settings related to Square Online in your Item Library, make sure you’ve set up a Square Online account. Learn how to set up your online store with Square Online.
Manage online item settings
Sale prices only apply to your Square Online site and do not sync to other Square platforms.
- Sign in to your Square Dashboard and click Items & orders > Items > Item library.
- Select an existing item or create a new one.
- Under Variations, go to Price and click Options > Add online sale price.
- Enter a sale price for each variation that you want to update.
- Click Save when finished.
Note: If you’d like sale prices to be automatically updated, learn how to Schedule item updates for your online store.
Site assignment refers to which of your websites your item is assigned to. This, in combination with site 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.
- Sign in to your Square Dashboard and click Items & orders > Items > Item library.
- Select an existing item or create a new one.
- Under “Where it’s sold,” use the toggles to determine which websites the item should be assigned to.
- Click Save when finished.
Note: If you’re using online channel integrations such as Google Business Profile or Meta for Business, you can also assign your item to those channels by clicking +Add channels.
Site visibility refers to how and where an item will appear on your website that it’s been assigned to.
- Sign in to your Square Dashboard and click Items & orders > Items > Item library.
- Select an existing item or create a new one.
- Under “Where it’s sold,” choose a site visibility setting from the Site visibility drop-down menu.
- Click Save when finished.
The site 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 site visibility settings include:
- Visible: Your item is visible on your online ordering page and available for purchase. It will also show up in navigation and site search results.
- Hidden: Your item is available for purchase online but won’t display on your ordering page. You can still add the item to featured items sections (useful for events and donations), or give buyers a direct link to the item (useful for exclusive items). To learn more, check out how to Sell hidden and exclusive items with Square Online.
- Unavailable: Your item isn’t visible online and can’t be purchased (useful if you aren’t ready to sell the item yet).
Note: If you’d like item site visibility to be automatically updated, learn how to Schedule item updates for your online store.
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 customer’s cart.
Note: This feature is available to Square Online Plus and Premium subscribers.
- Sign in to your Square Dashboard and click Items & orders > Items > Item library.
- Select an existing item or create a new one.
- Under Ordering, toggle on Set quantity limits for online orders and enter a number in the text field.
- Click Save when finished.
Note: To limit the total quantity of items allowed per online pickup and delivery order, you can set a large order limit by going to your Square Dashboard and clicking Settings > Account & Settings > Fulfillment > Pickup & Delivery > Advanced settings.
In order to sell any of your items online, be sure to indicate how you’ll be fulfilling them when ordered from your website.
- Sign in to your Square Dashboard and click Items & orders > Items > Item library.
- Select an existing item or create a new one.
- Under Fulfillment, Edit the online fulfillment methods.
- Use the checkboxes to indicate the fulfillment methods used for that item and click Done.
- Click Save when finished.
Fulfillment options for online items include:
Note: Non-physical items don’t use standard fulfillment methods so you won’t see these options for those item types.
Prep time refers to how long it takes to prepare items and orders for pickup and local delivery. This helps with providing accurate timing to customers who will either pick up the order or have it delivered.
- Sign in to your Square Dashboard and click Items & orders > Items > Item library.
- Select an existing item or create a new one.
- Under Fulfillment, Edit the item prep time.
- Toggle off Use location default to choose a custom prep time for your item and click Done.
- Click Save when finished.
Note: To set up prep times for all pickup and local delivery orders, go to your Square Dashboard and click Settings > Account & Settings > Fulfillment > Pickup & Delivery.