This article will show you how to enable Square's Inventory Tracking feature for new products.
Overview
Square recently expanded its inventory management features to allow new products to either
automatically have their inventory tracked or not with a simple toggle. What is inventory tracking? This refers to the act of your business continuously monitoring all of the inventory that you own. This allows you to know when you are running low on certain products as Square will know the number of items you have on hand as long as this feature is enabled. This feature also allows SKU IQ to know what inventory quantities you have on-hand in-store as well! In order for SKU IQ to accurately report to your eCommerce site what inventory is available, the Inventory Tracking Toggle in Square must be turned on. Otherwise, this can result in your eCommerce reporting 0 values - which will show your products as “OUT OF STOCK!”
Why Is This Important?
Enabling inventory tracking is extremely important to the operation and success of your connection with SKU IQ! When pushing new items from Square to your eCommerce website with inventory tracking turned off, Square reports to SKU IQ that there is a Null value for the product. That’s programming speak for “0”. This 0 number will then translate to your eCommerce website as that! And your product will be marked as “OUT OF STOCK,” so you will be unable to sell the product online. If inventory tracking is not turned on, regardless of the quantity that Square is reporting, the number will be sent as a 0 to your eCommerce platform. This will also turn inventory tracking OFF on your eCommerce platform as well! This can result in you overselling your products as your eCommerce will see that there is an “infinite” amount of that product. This will continue to cycle until the problem is rectified on both ends - which can cause you a big headache and a lot of customer frustration and disappointment.
How to Turn Inventory Tracking On in Square
1. Log in to your Square Dashboard and navigate to Items & orders.
2. Click Items from the menu that displays.
3. On the bottom of the left-hand side menu, click Settings.
4. A drop down menu displays. You may need to scroll down in order to view the
“Inventory” selection for the drop down menu. Click Inventory.
5. You will find “Inventory Tracking” there. Please make sure that this is toggled on. (See below image.)
Toggling this on will enable inventory tracking for any new items created after the setting is turned on. In order to enable it for all existing inventory (those that were created prior to turning this setting on), you will need to click the “Enable for all existing items” button located directly below the toggle.
You will then need to adjust your stock to what you have on-hand (which may require a physical count) for those products that were created with the inventory tracking turned off.
More Resources
Square Support: Track Your Inventory with Square for Retail