Online orders placed out of business hours?

[tnorthcutt]

[The title of this thread has been edited from the original: Limit Online Order Hours?]

Hi, 

Is it possible to limit the hours of the online store? 

Our bakery expanded the number of items for sale in the online store to make it easier for people to place takeout orders. We are finding, however, that customers are placing orders after we've closed for pickup in the morning and wiping us out of stock for the next day. 

For example, we prepare 6 croissants to proof on Tuesday night after close and to bake first thing on Wednesday morning. Someone places on online order at 10 PM for all 6. This leaves us with nothing to sell to customers who do come the bakery the next morning.

Ideally we could limit sales after hours so we don't come in to surprise orders or have a different prep time for items ordered outside of business hours.

Any other suggestions on how to handle this?

[isabelle]

Hey @tnorthcutt-

Thanks for posting in the Seller Community! 🥐

Hmmm. This is an interesting situation. Have you tried adjusting your hours for just pick up?

Additionally, are you allowing your customers to place a scheduled order for in the future? 

I wonder if that's what is allowing them to purchase the croissants/pastries the night prior. Let me know a bit more about what your settings are so I can look into this further. 

[tnorthcutt]

I think you're right that scheduled pickup is causing this. (See settings below.)

The intention was to allow a customer to order a cake for a party in advance (e.g. pickup on Saturday as 12 PM). That was really the only use-case for the online store pre-COVID. Now, however, we've got lots of people using it for small take away orders and we are running into these scenarios that likely weren't in the requirements for an online store in normal times.

Thanks for any suggestions.