Items per time slot

[Backyardpizza]

I operate a mobile food business. I only operate by pre ordering.  Theres a few functions that I would like to see.

1. Limit amount of items per pick up time.  I can do 6 items per 15 mins.  But I can only limit amount of orders. I would like to allow as many orders until the item limit is reached.

2. Have an option to pay upon pick up when at the online checkout.

3. If I take a phone order or from social media messaging, the ability to enter the order on the pos and assign a pick up time that syncs with the online ordering.

4. My opening hours are 5pm-8pm, first pick up is 5pm and last pick up is 8.  My pick up times are every 15mins.  Why do I get some orders for 5:40, 6:10, 6:35 etc, it should be

5pm, 5:15, 5:30, 5:45, 6:00 etc

[Seamus]

Hey @Backyardpizza,

Thanks for reaching out and providing this feedback!

1. Item limiting per time slot is not one I've heard before, as your first request and thread title I've moved this thread to our feature requests board to track feedback for this request in the one place moving forward.

2. I've noted you posted in the existing feature request thread for cash on pickup - I'm not sure if this one is planned or not, but we'll update this thread if it does come.

3. Noted and I agree this would be a handy feature. At the moment the order rate limiting is only applicable to the Square Online platform, so if you're manually taking orders outside of here and running them through the POS you won't get the same functionality. There's definitely a use case for this though, I'll pass on your feedback to our eCommerce team.

4. Take a look over this thread - this is something that has come up in the past and while it's a little completed to wrap your head around, I think the explanation here should apply - in short, order limiting works as a sliding 15 minute window with pickup times in lots of 5 minutes within that window.

[Smokinmbbq]

Yep I agree, I want set 15min intervals also, it's so much easier to comprehend what is going on... Sounds like we do something similar, I have a home based bbq business and I I have it set for 3 customers every 15 mins.  But when testing the site it allowed 3 at 645, then i tried to order again but just pushed it back to 705.. Essentially this will continue to push out all the orders for the rest of the night. 

I have edited the time manually,  but i would if the customer would get an update of the time change?  

[Arie]

Hi @Smokinmbbq,

It looks like orders are being paced out in 5 minute intervals - take a look at this thread where you can find more about how orders are spaced out. When a customer places an order, there's a link where they can track the order's progress- e.g when you've marked an item as in progress, or complete. Please let us know how you go!

[Smokinmbbq]

Hi Arie, 

We just used it on our page for the first time.. It seems to work fairly well and spaced everything out evenly throughout for the night. Only real issue was once the orders got toward the end of the time period (We are using it as a pre order, for a specific date, and open for 2 1/5 hours 6pm-830pm) We would block out dates before the event, and only be 'open' for the Saturday, and block out the next few Saturdays, but it would allow customers to continue to order but push them to the next available time, being some 2/3 weeks later. We then had to shut the online shop and adjust the times manually.  Essentially we had to be on the ball to stop taking orders. 

A pre order for a specific date would be ideal. and numerous square users have been asking for it for a long time. It's a shame we continue to get the same spiel about it getting forwarded to the tech team to look at as a future release...   

[Backyardpizza]

Yep that’s the same issue I have with the addition of removing available time slots from my online ordering. 
Customers would then message me asking if a certain time is available, I would say yes. But it is not showing online. 
as much as I like square, it seems to fall slightly with allowing users to customise there times. 
For me I know I can do 6-8 items per 15mins. But I can’t set this so that O can have as many or as few orders that will equal my item limit. 
Its something many have asked for, but not something that has been made available,  even if they trialled it as a Beta.  This would allow me to increase revenue over the time I operate. 
I’m a one man show. I believe if you order for a certain time, then you shouldn’t have to wait an extra 15-20mins. 

[Backyardpizza]

Great response. As you mentioned, we operate on a similar model. 
I operate at a location with limited space. So having more than 3 customers show up together is not logistically possible. 
i open my pre orders on a Monday. 1 per 15mins. But as you described the times will be out of sync. The. For me times will disappear even though I know I can fit people in. 
having to manually process orders is time consuming. 
C’mon square give your customers the option of an item limit per time. 

[Smokinmbbq]

Yeah the system is easy enough for physical items like clothes and the like, but for catering/small food business doesnt seem to have what we need. I have a limit of 3 customers per 15mins, but each of those customers may order 8 items each.. I have adjusted the count so customers can only order 8 things per order, but it may be the 8 biggest meal boxes we have.. 

[Backyardpizza]

Yeah mate, I can do 8 pizzas for we 15 mins. But if I put a customer limit of even two per 15mins and both order more than 4 each. It just pushes every other other back. Then the opposite problem is with one customer and we 15 mins.  Not every customer want 8 pizzas. So for the time slots when it’s just 2 pizzas. I’m potentially missing out on selling 6 to others in the same time slot. Yes I could do it manually but I don’t have time to do manual orders.