Covid related feature requests for online store

[Smithward]

@Seamus 

Couple of feature requests urgently requested (as far as we can see they don't currently exist)

1. Limit the number of an item allowed in a cart e.g. only 1 per customer, to prevent hoarding or to allow vendor to meet specific govt covid regulations

2. Allow business to set maximum number of pick-ups for a timeslot, e.g, to avoid everyone booking a dinner pickup at 7pm and so breaking social distancing laws.

We appreciate you'll be flat out at the moment, but rapid rollout of these 2 requests could literally save lives and businesses.

Thanks, stay safe

[Seamus · Accepted solution]

EDIT: Since originally posting we've released order staggering for pickup.

Thanks for the feedback @Smithward!

I've passed your feedback on to our product development team - we're currently looking at ways to expand our online store offering given the coronavirus restrictions, so this is valuable feedback. I can't make any guarantees about specific features, but we're listening to our merchants and working on new features to help with delivery and pickup orders.

On your first point, while it's not the exact feature you're looking for, you can restrict overall order sizes (as opposed to number of items per order). You can do this via "Pickup and Delivery" then "Edit Settings". While it's not precise way to restrict orders of a single item, it can set a restriction to how much a customer can buy in a single order. You may already be aware of this feature - just giving you a heads up if you'd not seen it!

[Smithward]

Thanks @Seamus we have set that overall limit to avoid being swamped with a large order (we wish 😉). Look forward to any updates that can be made 👍

[Smithward]

@Seamus  @Valentina   In addition to the above request:

2. Allow business to set maximum number of pick-ups for a timeslot, e.g, to avoid everyone booking a dinner pickup at 7pm and so breaking social distancing laws.

Can we also please request the ability to force selecting a pickup time (in tandem with limiting number of orders allowed per pickup time).

Tonight we had the majority of our orders placed in the hours leading up to our 5pm open, using the default prep time of 30mins. This meant we had a dozen people all arrive at 5.30pm - a nightmare for social distancing laws that could lead to us getting a massive fine and threaten the health of our customers (not to mention making us look irresponsible to those customers). 

With reduced staffing we didn't have the resources to contact each customer and reschedule their pickup.

This is an urgent request.

Elsewhere, more of a bug than a feature request - the default prep time appears to be getting added to the pickup start time for the next opening...e.g. prep time is set 30mins, pickup hours are set to 5pm-8pm each day. If an order is placed after close for the next trading day, or placed earlier same day before store is open, the earliest pick-up time is 5.30pm. Later days correctly allow pickup from 5pm.

Thanks, stay safe.

[Seamus]

Hey again @Smithward,

Thanks for following up!

I've passed your comments on to our team again - we're currently hearing a lot of feedback from merchants about how we can make Online Store function as well as possible to account for COVID-19 regulations. You make a great point, and I've made sure to highlight your story and how having pickup time slots would help alleviate having too many people at your shopfront at once.

I know the team are currently working full steam ahead on getting as many features out as quickly as possible. Some will be "quick wins" while others will take more time and resources to build - I don't where where exactly a pickup time-frame option sits here, but please know you're being heard! We will have more to share about new Online Store features as they become available, so keep an eye on this forum, your email and social media channels.

All the best, hope you stay safe too.

[Smithward]

Thanks @Seamus , much appreciated

[Smithward]

Another small request (Sorry):

If a customer doesn't select a pick-up time, the language at checkout and in their confirmation email is confusing.

e.g. it says  "Your order will be ready for pickup: Today after 5:30 PM"

Customers are interpreting "after" to mean they can come anytime after the time, when, especially for a food business, it should read "at 5:30pm". 

As mentioned, if we could just have the option to remove this default and require a customer to enter a pickup time, that'd be great.

[AshleyK]

@Smithward thank you so much for adding this feature request as well. I will share this with our Development team too.

If you think of anything else you would like to see with Curbside Pickup, do not hesitate to add it. 

Thanks, again.