How to create a 5 for $45 deal?

hccpsquare · ‎10-23-2017

Hi, how would you set up a "5 for $45" deal on a small segment of the SKUs that you sell...in a fast-paced environment where it's not always immediately clear which customers need the discount? How would you configure the products for the most efficient solution?

Here's the use case:

My store has hundreds of unique products/SKUs. Let's say the average price is $10...
But 30 of those SKUs will appear in a 5 for $45 deal, which will decrease the price of just those 30 SKUs to $9 when they're bought in groups of five. ($9 x 5 = $45)
Here's the challenge: I have a fast-paced business with big purchases. (Several customers per minute, 10 or more SKUs per purchase.) At a glance of each customer's purchase it will be hard to determine whether they're including 5+ relevant SKUs (and should therefore receive the discount), or whether they only included 4 or less relevant SKUs (and should not receive the discount).
So, accounting for human error on my part, a.k.a. my needing to switch from discounted to normal prices (and vice versa) in order to correct my miscounts on the fly...
How would you configure your SKUs for a 5 for $45 deal? Would you create variant prices for the 30 SKUs? Create 30 duplicate SKU? Or use an automated featuring that would "know" when 5 relevant SKUs are in a purchase?

I hope this makes sense! Thanks for your time,

Adam

VanKalkerFarms · ‎10-23-2017

Well, unfortunately, there isn't an automatic way to do this. We have a similar pricing setup. if anyone buys 4 or more of 4 specific items they get $1 off each one.

So the way we do it is to have multiple price points for the items in question and then have the cashier change the price when the items in question reach at least 4 of the items. So this works but isn't ideal because it leans 100% on the cashier to remember which items and to choose the correct price of the item. I'd say it works 49 times out of 50 but that 1 out of 50 gives you a headache when they call in to complain about you trying to rip them off.

So, take this for what it is, but there have been rumors that a larger attempt at discounting is in the works, but that could mean nothing will happen, or it could mean it'll be here next year, or it could be 2 years off, or have none of the features we are wanting.

Bob Van Kalker
My Van Kalker Farms Garden Center website
My Rise'n Roll Bakery Schererville Indiana Facebook Page
My Rise'n Roll Bakery Cedar Lake Facebook Page

RHatch · ‎10-23-2017

There is currently no easy or automated way to do this with Square Point of sale. You can't have duplicate SKU in the system. You can have a variant but they each have to have a separate SKU. If you are scanning items a variant will not help. The only way to do this is to move these items to the side as you are ringing and then take the discount based on the number of items that qualify.

Now the next issue is you can only do a discount once. Your example is basically $5 off. You can only use this discount once so if they buy ten items you can't do the $5 off discount twice to get to $10 off you will have to have a $10 off discount or allow for a variable discount to be used by your employees.

This discount is going to be hard to track to make sure it is only taken on the items it should be taken on. Might consider just ringing everything at $9. How many times to customers only by one?

If they would buy 5 of the same item you could create an item that represents 5 at the $45 price point but that will mess up your inventory.

Sorry I didn't have better answer for you.