Set up items for your online shop
About selling items online
When using Square Online, you can think of your websites as different virtual storefronts where you can set up and customise 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 optimisation (SEO), social media links and more. This will ensure items sold online are discoverable, and 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.
Before you can use the item settings related to Square Online in your Item Library, you need to create items and set up a Square Online account. Learn how to Create and edit items and set up your website.
Limiting item quantities per order and setting up gift options are only available with a Square Online Plus or Premium subscription. Only Physical and Prepared food and beverage item types support gifting.
To create items more quickly, you can manage certain item settings so that new items always have a few attributes automatically enabled, especially for items you sell online. Learn how to set up item defaults.
Manage online item settings
Sale prices only apply to your Square Online site and do not sync to other Square platforms.
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > 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 you want to update.
- Click Save.
You can also set sale prices to be updated automatically. 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 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.
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > 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.
If you use 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 determines an item’s appearance on all assigned websites. For example, if you mark an item as Visible, it’ll be visible on each of your sites where the item is being sold.
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > 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. Site visibility options include:
- Visible: Your item is visible on your online ordering page and available for purchase. It’ll 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). Learn 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).
- Click Save.
You can also set 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 basket per Square Online order. This can help prevent you from selling out of high-demand 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 basket.
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > Items > Item Library.
- Select an existing item or create a new one.
- Under Ordering, toggle Set quantity limits for online orders on and enter a number in the text field.
- Click Save.
You can also limit the total quantity of items allowed per online collection and delivery order by clicking Collection & delivery advanced settings > Advanced settings.
Enabling gift options allows customers to indicate that an item they’re purchasing is intended to be a gift. Buyers can include a message to the recipient that displays on the delivery invoice, along with return or exchange instructions. You can also offer gift wrapping with an optional added fee.
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > Items > Item Library.
- Select an existing item or create a new one.
- Under Ordering, Set up the gift options.
- To offer a gift-wrapping service, toggle Offer gift wrap on.
- Enter a customer-facing Label and Description for the gift wrap, and add an Additional cost if you wish to charge an optional fee.
- Click Save.
Each gift will come with a gift receipt that includes a message from the buyer and your return policy.
In order to sell any of your items online, make sure you indicate how you’ll be fulfilling them when ordered from your website.
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > Items > Item Library.
- Select an existing item or create a new one.
- Under Fulfilment, Edit the online fulfilment methods.
- Use the tick boxes to indicate the fulfilment methods assigned to that item. Click Done when finished. Fulfilment options include:
- shipping: Assign Shipping fulfilment (for shipping via a courier) to set up shipping couriers.
- In-store and click and collect: assign Collection fulfilment (for in-person collection) to set up collection options for your online store.
- Local delivery: assign Local delivery fulfilment (for collection and delivery via a delivery service) to set up delivery options for your online store.
- QR code ordering: assign Self-service ordering fulfilment (for kiosks or QR code ordering) to set up and manage QR code ordering for your online store.
- Click Save.
Note: non-physical items don’t use standard fulfilment methods, so you won’t see these options for those item types. Learn how to sell non-physical items with Square Online.
Prep time refers to how long it takes to prepare items and orders for collection and local delivery. This helps with providing accurate timing to customers who will either pick the order up or have it delivered.
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > Items > Item Library.
- Select an existing item or create a new one.
- Under Fulfilment, Edit the item prep time.
- Toggle Use location default off to choose a custom prep time for your item and click Done.
- Click Save.
You can also set up prep times for all collection and local delivery orders in your Online collection & delivery settings.