Hi. Actually, we don't cut and paste at all. I'm the Owner and a few of my team monitor these message boards and help out with answers and I would fire them if I caught them copying and pasting.
So let me clear up exactly how what we responded with was in fact a solution to this issue. Also, the word "Solutions" is ironically in our official, incorporated name, so that's what we do - ie. create solutions for Square, as an official Square Partner.
1. Our Apps help Retail E-Commerce the same way all the other Mobile Apps being utilized by Retail E-Commerce help those businesses. Ocassionally we "sell" ourselves and our value, but these days it's pretty obvious based on how all the famous brands are leveraging apps.
2. People pay for basic features all the time. It's all about what's important to you, your pain points and what you value - as well as how much said basic feature is. Our tech helps businesses in all sorts of other ways, so it's really about the tipping point. ie. At what point does a business try a solution that offers them everything they're already getting, but also a lot more?
3. Finally, here's the solution:
"we'd love to offer a "Pre-Order" where a customer can place their order,"
- our Apps, which are actually called "Pre-Order" Apps already do this.
"but their card isn't cully charged until the items come into stock/are made available to the customer for pick up."
- the explanation of our "Keep Fresh" feature was to simply explain that we already have this capability and why, so as to add more context to the real-world, use-case scenario.
Elaborating more specifically... Square doesn't really allow Orders to hit your system that don't have a payment, but understanding the way Square structures what they consider a "complete" order helps utilize what Square does offer to achieve this.
I believe (but am not sure) that there may be ways of using "Open Tickets" for example to achieve this. And, yes, our "solution" isn't exactly a "How do I do this just in Square without getting anything new?" solution - never the less, it is a solution. And, this is specifically how our solution works (as was indicated by our original reply):
1. Let the Customer order
2. Store the Order and the Card Number
3. At a certain point in time or action (like getting stock in) we process the card
4. Upon successful payment, Square's system sees the Order as "fulfilled" then treats it as if the order was just made right then and there.
5. And since, we already have tons of pickup features in the App with tons of Checkout Options, we can easily create a payment option specifically for this type of "transaction" that automatically sets a pickup window (based on the business' availability) that gets auto-sent to the Customer in an E-Mail confirmation, the most Step 4 happens (which is how our system is already built). Or, those Confirmation Emails can be easily changed to prompt the Customer to schedule a pickup another kind of way if that's preferred by a business.
Square provides a lot of incredible services and products, but they are very well aware that they can't do and specialize in everything - that's why they have an awesome Partners Program that enlists all kinds of cool companies to create other features for businesses. Some features may seem "basic", but if it doesn't fall into Square "core" value and feature-offering, then they may simply be delegating it over to their Partners to help with.
Hope this clears up our original reply and proves it wasn't cut and paste!
GetPreOrder.com, Official Square Partner - Create a $250K custom SuperSite for Square free. https://getpreorder.com/supersites
