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.

[tranguyen]

Hi @thecafeguy, thank you for reaching out!

Currently, this is a feature gap within the system but we are hoping to add pre-order/scheduled delivery to the Square Online Store soon! I'll reach out to the Product team on my end here and check - once I have a definitely estimated launch date, I'll be sure to reach out and let you know.

In the meantime, if you have enable "Allow customer to leave a note to seller", it's worth encouraging customers to add a note of when they want to have their foods deliver. To check if you have this turn on: 

1. Go to your Square Dashboard > Online Store > Settings > Checkout
2. Click Edit under Advanced Settings
3. Make sure the Allow customer to leave a note to seller box is ticked 
4. Click Save

An alternative that some sellers have used is set up delivery slot/time slot as an item or modifier. When customers are placing their order, they can add their prefer time slot as another item in the basket as well. This will allow you to control how many orders you will deliver in a time window.

[thecafeguy]

Sorry for the late reply but I have the option ticked but the only additional notes that pop up are the delivery dropoff comments. There aren't any other fields on the checkout page for the customer to place any notes in. It just seems confusing especially if they need to let us know anything important.

[tranguyen]

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.

[thecafeguy]

I've just checked my end and just seen the box. That's perfect 🙂 I've also noticed there's the option to preorder orders now through timeslots. Are these limited to one customer or can infinite number of customers order on the same time slot?

[tranguyen]

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

[ollieillo]

@tranguyen is there any movement on this feature? Preorders would be a great feature, and necessity as @thecafeguy has said.

cheers

[tranguyen]

Hi @ollieillo, thanks for checking in on this! At the moment, additional features have been added so that customers and schedule their pickup or delivery for a future date if you have enabled this, allowing for a sort of pre-order. 

[ollieillo]

Hi @tranguyen I realise that as it’s what the old info was on the preorders. I meant was there news on this actually being a proper preorder function?

I don’t sell food, so prep time and scheduling are irrelevant to me. I sell a lot of posters, and it would be really useful to drum up interest and have people make preorders before I receive prints so that there’s more flow of orders. Will there be a proper preorders function coming?

cheers

[tranguyen]

Hi @ollieillo, thanks for clarifying! Pre-ordering is a feature that our Product team has been exploring. I don't have a definite timeline to share right now as to when this will be available but I'll make sure to update this thread when I have more information from our team.

[nell_a]

Hi @tranguyen and @ollieillo 

I would like to second what ollieillo's suggesting. Some of the products we sell we manufacture only after we have received an order from our customer. We don't hold any stock. We want to be able to process an order online which means taking 100% payment up front and then fulfilling the order some weeks later (after the manufacturing is complete).

Will this new pre-orders functionality that's in development be a help to us?

Here is a related post, which was a request to continue selling items that are out of stock: https://www.sellercommunity.com/t5/Questions-How-To/Feature-Request-continue-selling-out-of-stock-it...

Thank you.