Mobile ordering | Pick up | Catering

[kindnessinacup]

Hello, I operate a coffee shop with limited parking. To-go, call ahead ordering and online order capabilities are needed. 

Does anyone know of a solution that integrates with Square?

I was looking into Caviar but don't know if we will get accepted into the program

I also have been looking into Poppin

I am considering a square online store too, however the key is the notification system to our tablet/team (I'm not sure how square online store works ) 

Any and all suggestions welcome

[ryanwanner]

Hi @kindnessinacup! I run a coffee cafe and have the online capabilities you're needing active in my store. The only thing I'm not currently in that you mentioned is Caviar. We're not in an eligible area.

We have a PoppinPay app set up. I *HIGHLY* recommend them. Great support, full printer integration with the Point of Sale, and a feature set on the app that's perfect for repeat orders. They do charge $149/month, but on our side we never have to worry about API changes, bug fixes, or submissions to Apple or Google. We just sell stuff and they do the back end heavy lifting. If you go with them, tell them R&R sent ya. 🙂 If you want to see what the app looks like in real time, we're in the app store as R&R Coffee. (I'm not going to get anything for you telling them that, so please don't think this is a paid endorsement!)

As for the Square Online Store, it's an easy way to dip your feet in the water of the Online Marketplace, and, obviously, it's fully integrated with the Point of Sale. The only advantage Square's store has over the PoppinPay app is that you get the capability to contact the customer if there is an issue with your order. I know phone number capture is something the app is working on but it's not available yet. Other than that, the online store as it is right now is pretty limited for the customer. There is no order history, favorites, or credit card saves. It works, but that's about it.

For either solution (and I wouldn't be surprised if there are more solutions out there), if you have printers in your shop, just turn on the "Always print new orders" in the Remote Orders section of the settings on your Point of Sale and it'll print your order at the right time. If you don't have printers, every time you get an order, you'll get a "New order received" alert on the Point of Sale. Tapping it will take you to the Orders side of the system and you can see what was ordered. You can also get an email sent to you through both options, and the app allows for a text alert that an order came through.

Hope this helps!

[kindnessinacup]

thank you @ryanwanner ! I have reached out to PoppinPay - looks like 4-6 weeks for app setup. To your knowledge does the online store notify point of sale when an order has been made?

I'm trying to figure out how our baristas will see the order etc

[ryanwanner]

With PoppinPay, 4-6 weeks does sound about right. Most of that is waiting on Apple to verify the app.

For both the app and the Online Store, the Point of Sale lets your team know whenever there's an order in. If you don't have the auto print setting enabled, you'll see a message like this:

If auto-print is enabled, the system will print the ticket automatically at the right time. What I mean by that is with both the Online Store and the app, the customer has the option of ordering for later on. If the customer does this, with auto printing off, the alert pictured above will come in right when the order is received, but the order will have a "Pending" tag next to it. Your team has to remember when the order is scheduled to be picked up and make it when it's time. With the auto print enabled, the system will keep track of the time and print it when it is time to make the order. 15 minutes is the default, but you can change it. If the customer orders for ASAP pickup (which is the usual in my experience), the system will print the ticket immediately.

If it prints, your team will know it's a pickup order by what is printed on the ticket: the Online Store says Square Pickup for the name, and for the app it says PoppinPay Mobile Order in the notes section at the bottom of the ticket.

One word of warning on the back end: all online orders are reported as an Untracked Employee on all reports. If you utilize employee management, that'll throw you off the first few times you see it.

[thuffman]

Hi @ryanwanner  question for your here. Do I need to have a kitchen printer to recieve orders or can I just print to a thermal printer? 

From the sound of things that isn't the case.

[ryanwanner]

Any printer (thermal, impact or KDS) can accept online orders. It all depends on where you have the categories set for printing. 

[PreOrder_Apps]

Did you ever try the Poppin solution? If so, how do you like it?