Lightspeed Retail POS allows you to deactivate or delete products that are not relevant to your business.

Deactivating a product is best used when you don’t want the product to show up in inventory counts or be available for sale, but you may want to re-add the product later.

Deleting a product is recommended when you won't sell it again and no longer need to include it in your catalog.

Deactivating products

Deactivated products can’t be sold and are automatically excluded from inventory counts. You can reactivate a product at any time. To deactivate a product:

1. Navigate to Catalog > Products.

   

2. Optionally, use the filters to find the product(s).
3. Select the checkboxes of the products you want to deactivate.
4. Click Choose an action.

   

5. Select Deactivate product on channels.

   

6. Choose if the product will be deactivated In-store, in your Online store, or select both.

   

7. Click Deactivate on channels.

Your product(s) will be deactivated and will no longer be available for purchase in your physical location(s) and/or your online store.

Reactivating products

At any time, you can reactivate a deactivated product and enable it for sale. To reactivate a product:

1. Navigate to Catalog > Products.
2. In the Channel status drop-down, select Inactive.

   

3. Click Search.
4. Select the checkboxes of the products you want to reactivate.
5. Click Choose an action.
6. Select Activate product on channels.

   

7. Choose if the product will be deactivated In-store, in your Online store, or select both.

   

8. Click Activate on channels.

Your products will be activated, making them available for purchase and visible in inventory counts.

Deleting an individual product

Deleting a product will remove the selected product from your product catalog permanently. The product cannot be restored. If you wish to temporarily remove a product, we recommend deactivating the product instead.

To delete a product:

1. Navigate to Catalog > Products.
2. Optionally, use the filters to find the product.
3. Click on the product to expand the product view.
4. Click Delete.

   

5. Click Delete product.

   

The product will be deleted.

If your deletion was unsuccessful, you'll see an error message outlining the cause of the failure. This may be because the product is part of:

• Open/sent stock order and stock transfer
• Open stock return
• An open or in-progress inventory count
• Parked, open layby, or on account sale
• Any composite product as a component

You need to complete or cancel the listed inventory movements or remove the product from the open movement. Once you have done this, click Try again and delete product.

Processing a sale with a deleted product

If you are processing a sale that includes a deleted product, a warning message will appear stating that there is insufficient inventory to complete the sale. If the product is available in-store, you can click Continue anyway and the sale will be able to be completed as normal.

You can also Mark sale as unfulfilled to change the sale status to Delivery or Pickup.

If the product is no longer available, click the trash icon to delete it from the sale.

Processing returns including a deleted product

A deleted product can still be processed as part of a return as usual. A note will mention that the product has been deleted from your store.

If you intend to resell the product, we recommend adding the product back into your store to ensure correct inventory levels.

Deleting products in bulk

If you need to remove many items at once, Retail POS lets you delete products in bulk. You can delete products in bulk in two different ways: using select all or using a spreadsheet.

Deleting products by using select all

If the items you wish to delete are all of the same supplier, brand, or type, have the same tags, or the same keywords, you can use the select all checkbox to quickly delete these products.

1. Navigate to Catalog > Products.
2. Filter products by keyword, type, tag, supplier, or brand.
3. Click Search.
4. Click the checkbox at the top of the list to select all.
   1. The maximum number of products that can be bulk-deleted at once is 200.

      

5. Click Choose an action.
6. From the dropdown, select Delete products.
7. Click Delete products.

All selected products will be deleted.

Deleting products in bulk using a spreadsheet

There are some instances when the items you wish to delete can't be easily filtered. This could be because they are from various suppliers or brands. In this case, it's faster to edit your product list in a spreadsheet and import back into Retail POS to delete.

1. Navigate to Catalog > Products.
2. Click Export list.

   

3. Select XLSX format (recommended) or CSV format. Your spreadsheet will automatically download.
4. Open your download in your spreadsheet editing software.
5. In the Active column, change the “1” to “0” for each product you want to delete.

   

6. If you have an online store: In the Active_online column, change the “1” to “0” for each product you want to delete.

   

7. Delete these 3 columns to ensure product inventory for items not being deleted isn’t altered:
   • Inventory
   • Reorder point
   • Restock level

   If you have multiple locations, delete these columns for each location.

   

8. Save the spreadsheet.
9. On your Products page in Retail POS, click Import.

   

10. Select your spreadsheet for import. The import may take several minutes.
11. Once the import is complete, under Channel status, select Inactive.
12. Click Search. All products marked inactive will now be visible.
13. Click Choose an action.
14. From the dropdown, click Delete products.

    Deleting all inactive products will delete any product that is set to inactive on every channel. This means products that were inactive prior to importing the spreadsheet will also be deleted by this action.

15. Click Delete products.

All selected products will be deleted.

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