Feature Request: Preordering Online Orders (Custom Time/Date)

[thecafeguy]

I think a lot of online store users would appreciate some sort of pre-ordering feature. My business would greatly benefit from the feature as it would enable us to take any kind of online order from a customer who wishes to purchase their order in the morning but get it delivered at lunchtime. At the moment the current system only allows you to order immediately with the exception of a prep time and delivery time combined giving them an estimate.

It's also a bit annoying that we don't have a special instructions or any additional notes upon checkout. I know there's a contact free box to tell us where we can deliver but that's confusing to the customer and if they want to order something in advance I need a note box at checkout before purchasing so that they can add times and whatever.

[#2]

Hey @thecafeguy, you may have seen this by now but I just want to share that our team has recently roll out a feature that allow you to set a cut-off time for orders if they want them to be fulfil the same day. You should see this when editing your pickup & delivery settings under Fulfilment > Pickup & Delivery on your Square Online dashboard.

You'll also see a fulfilment calculator on the right handside that will shown the fulfilment time & date customers will see at checkout, depending on when they order. 

To set this up:

1. Navigate to Online Checkout 
2. Tap > Fulfillment 
3. Tap > Pickup & Delivery
4. Tap > Edit next to the location to be edited 
5. Scroll to “Do orders need to be placed by a certain time to be fulfilled the same day?”
6. Highlight the circle “Orders must be placed by a specific time”
7. Enter the time orders must be placed by
8. Tap > Save

I hope this will help!

[#3]

By default, there isn't a limit on the time slot but if needed, you can limit the number of orders that can be picked up or delivered at the same time @thecafeguy. Just to note - the order limiting are only working with ASAP orders and scheduled delivery at the moment. We're still working to get this feature for scheduled pickup.

To limit your orders from your Online Store dashboard:

1. Go to Settings > Pickup & Delivery

2. Click Edit location

3. Scroll down to Order timing settings > Edit

4. Toggle Limit the number of orders that can be picked up or delivered at the same time on and enter the number of orders you would allow

5. Click Save

[#4]

Thanks for reaching back out, @thecafeguy! If you have the option tick, the Notes to Seller field should be there when customers go to Review & Submit Order. I know it's a bit far down on the checkout flow but customers should be able to enter extra information here.

[TGPH]

Is there any news on preorders @tranguyen ?

I operate a grocery store..

Some items we can only deliver/pickup on set dates.

eg. - Christmas Turkey, we will only have in stock on the 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th December.

We should be able to set the dates the item is available to collect/deliver. 

Customer can choose this date.. and pre-order it.

[tranguyen]

Thanks for checking up on this @TGPH. We do not have any further update for this particular feature right now. 

A workaround for pre-ordering would be to remove the automatic timing slot and enter a short instruction for customers. Once that is done, you can create your pickup date as modifier and applied it to your items. You can make the modifier compulsory so customers will have to choose a date before they can add item to check out. 

The modifier will be included in the order details and you can see it like so.

I hope this will help!

[amjessey]

Hi @tranguyen 

What is the latest information regarding pre-orders? Tomorrow, it will have been a year since I wrote in this post and it looks like most if not all of the issues raised then are still unresolved, e.g. blanket preparation times for all items is still the only option - we need this to be controlled on an item variation level; and, crucially, being able to sell items online which are sometimes in-stock and other times on pre-order, again on an item variation level.

What is development and when will there a beta? 

Thank you 

[tranguyen]

Hi @amjessey, thank you for following up on this. 

At the moment, prep time can be set either at a location level or at an item level — there is no update for when it'll be possible to set this at an item variation level.

Pre-order for item currently not in-stock is something that our Product team are still working on. While I do not have a timeline for this, the best way to get an update for when a beta will be available is through our Beta Community. 

[tranguyen]

Hey @thecafeguy, you may have seen this by now but I just want to share that our team has recently roll out a feature that allow you to set a cut-off time for orders if they want them to be fulfil the same day. You should see this when editing your pickup & delivery settings under Fulfilment > Pickup & Delivery on your Square Online dashboard.

You'll also see a fulfilment calculator on the right handside that will shown the fulfilment time & date customers will see at checkout, depending on when they order. 

To set this up:

1. Navigate to Online Checkout 
2. Tap > Fulfillment 
3. Tap > Pickup & Delivery
4. Tap > Edit next to the location to be edited 
5. Scroll to “Do orders need to be placed by a certain time to be fulfilled the same day?”
6. Highlight the circle “Orders must be placed by a specific time”
7. Enter the time orders must be placed by
8. Tap > Save

I hope this will help!