Build your customer’s cart in the Square Retail POS app
About the checkout process
Begin the checkout process with building your customer’s cart with items from your inventory. Depending on your preferred workflow, you can build your customer’s cart in multiple ways with the Square Retail POS app — choose from keyword search, scrolling through your item categories, scanning an item barcode, or using your favorites list.
Before you begin
You can checkout your customer with the Square for Retail POS app on iOS, Square Register, and Square Terminal. You can also complete customer checkout from the Square Dashboard using Virtual Terminal.
To add an item to your customer’s cart by scanning a Global Trade Item Number (GTIN), you will need to have a compatible barcode scanner connected or an iOS device with a camera connected to the Square Retail POS app or Square Point of Sale.
Add items to cart
To search for an item:
- Open Retail POS app > Checkout.
- Tap the search bar.
- Type a keyword, UPC, or SKU number for the item you’re searching for.
- Next, tap the item you would like to add to the cart > Add to Cart.
Once you create item categories, you add categories as a quick tile on their own page at the checkout screen.
Once a GTIN is associated with an item, you can add the item to your customer’s cart by scanning the barcode with a compatible barcode scanner or your device’s camera.
Scan from the Square Dashboard
- Log in to your Square Dashboard and click Virtual Terminal.
- Click Take a payment > Itemized sale.
- Click the barcode scanner icon.
- Tap Charge.
Scan from Square Point of Sale:
- Open Square POS.
- Tap Checkout.
- Scan the barcode using a connected barcode scanner.
- Tap Done on the pop-up notification.
- Tap Checkout > Charge.
From the Square Retail POS app
- Open the Retail POS app.
- Tap Checkout.
- Tap the scan barcode icon.
- Scan the barcode using a connected barcode scanner or the camera on your device.
- Tap Done on the pop-up notification.
- Tap Checkout > Charge.
Remove items from your cart
If you accidentally add an item to your cart, you can remove it at any time before the sale is complete.
Adjust items in cart
When an item is added to your cart, you can add a note, change the quantity, or adjust the price.
- Tap the item from your cart view.
- From the item details page, toggle on Item note. Add any additional information in the notes field.
- Tap Save > Save changes.
Notes will appear on your customer’s receipt and in your sales reports.
- Tap the item from your cart view.
- Adjust the quantity of the item using the -/+, or tap the number field.
- Tap Save Changes.
- Tap the item from your cart view.
- On the item details page, toggle on Price adjustment > enter new price > tap the checkmark.
- Enter the new price > Done.
- Once you’re all set, make sure to tap Save Changes.
If you want to return the item’s original price for the current transaction, toggle off Price adjustment > Save changes.
Save your customer’s cart for later
Let’s say you start adding items to a cart in the Retail POS app, but your customer wants to look at some more items in your store before checking out. You can save the current cart to keep your line moving until they’re ready to pay. When your customer returns, you can pick up right where you left off.
- If you have items added to your cart, tap Save Cart.
- Enter the cart name or swipe your customer’s card to add their name — you can also add an additional note to help you and your employees locate a saved cart. When you add a customer to the cart, the cart name will default to the customer’s name.
- Tap Create.
If you override the item price and then save a cart, the item will revert back to the default sale price. In order to charge your customer the adjusted price, you’ll need to manually update from the cart view before completing the transaction.
Once your customer is ready to check out, tap Saved Carts to view your saved cart list. Saved Carts can be customized as a checkout page or added as a tile to any created page. Carts left open longer than 180 days will be removed from your account.
- Tap Saved carts > Edit.
- Select multiple carts > Merge.
- Select the cart to merge carts into > Merge.
Merging multiple carts means you’re choosing to transfer information from one cart to another. For example: If you have customers added to Cart A and Cart B, when you merge Cart A to Cart B, the name and information for Cart A will be overridden by Cart B — only the customer from Cart B will be included in the sale.