POS add to cart needs to support SKU's as well as UPC

Topic summary

POS checkout currently only accepts UPC scans to add items directly; scanning SKUs requires using search, selecting the correct variant, and then adding to cart, slowing transactions. UPC (Universal Product Code) is a manufacturer barcode, while SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) is an internal store identifier.

Impact: This extra workflow can add minutes per checkout, which compounds during peak periods (e.g., Black Friday), potentially adding 30+ minutes for customers at the end of the line.

Context: Many products carried lack UPCs, making SKU scanning critical—examples include high-end outdoor furniture, 40 BBQ grills without barcodes, and a custom 4-spice gift box sold in the thousands monthly.

Related limitations: No ability to set different prices for online vs. POS or to apply channel-specific discounts.

Status: No resolution or workaround provided. The request is for POS to support direct SKU scanning for add-to-cart and for more flexible channel-specific pricing/discount options.

Summarized with AI on January 17. AI used: gpt-5.

When scanning to add an item to the cart, you can only scan a UPC and not a SKU. Which is fine if everything in the store has a UPC. If not you need to hit the search bar, scan the SKU, select the right variant, then add to cart. Not exactly a smooth process. Anyone in retail can tell you that is a disaster on Black Friday where adding 2 minutes to each checkout means the person at the end of the line is adding a half an hour or more to get to the front.

I’m sure someone said, “Everything has a UPC!” when it was set up, not realizing that isn’t true. A lot of high end outdoor furniture doesn’t have a barcode. We carry 40 different BBQ grills all without a barcode. We put 4 bottles of spices into a custom gift box which will never have a UPC because it doesn’t exist outside our business. And we sell thousands of those a month.

Bad enough Shopify doesn’t allow a different price for web than POS. Or make discounts for one side or the other.

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