New store front: Needing assistance with Item setup

[Keena]

The title of this thread has been edited by a Square Moderator from the original: "New store front"

I need help creating a new inventory system. I’m getting ready to open my brick and mortar store and overwhelmed with inventory and the check out process. I sell crystals and other metaphysical items. Does anyone have experience with using barcodes and have tons of different categories in their retail store? Any advice is greatly appreciated! 

[HC_Charlie]

Hello @Keena and thanks for your post. Starting out with Square and inventories can be overwhelming, but take small steps and you'll be there in no time! First, you mention categories...if you're selling different categories just start by making a list of all of your general types of merchandise. For example in my store I use these: Greeting cards, candy, clothing, candles, books, holiday, etc. You can get a specific as you like, but if you limit your main categories, you could then use subcategories to help manage your items.

If you want to track each individual item you can assign a SKU (barcode) for each item. If you have a dozen of the exact same item, these would share the same SKU with a quantity of 12. If you have different colors or sizes of the same item, you can vary your SKU slightly. For example a candle that comes in three colors you could set as: CAN1, CAN2, CAN3, etc. Anything to keep it separated. The system you create is up to you and whatever makes the most sense to stay organized.

If you sell any Pre-barcoded items, you can just scan and use that barcode in the SKU field in your Register or POS system. If you're using Square for Retail Plus you can print barcodes from with Square, but you can also use free websites (just Google) to create barcodes and print on your own label sheets. There are multiple posts in the Square Community here for barcode printing; just do a search and you'll find out loads of info on that subject.

Again, just start organizing on a sheet of paper, note cards, or in a spreadsheet. List your categories, then you can start adding your items within each category. I hope these suggestions help you start your inventory system!

[Candlestore]

@Keena ;

Currently we have about 4000 items and a bunch of categories.  To start setting up your items you could use a spreadsheet.  Put a few of your different items in Square Items, fill in as much information as you can to build a template for a spreadsheet.  Reference Handle and Token are generated by Square ( for new Items leave these blank).  The reason I suggest using the Spreadsheet to load your items is because if you have multiple items for a category You can copy paste the category down and fill it in quicker same with the price for similar items.  You can also scan Barcodes SKU's into a spreadsheet if you have a scanner compatible with your computer.  You can use a free spreadsheet like Google Sheets to edit and create your items.  Once you have your items created you can create barcodes for your items manually or if you have Square for Retail you can let Square create SKU's for you.  If your items come with a Barcode use that for the SKU.  The longer your SKU, the longer your Barcode will be and the longer barcode label you will need.  If you have the paid version of Square for Retail, and do not have a SKU yet, Square can generate one for you.