FOOD SERVICE HOLIDAY PRE-ORDERS

[waxwingbakery]

I have two things I am requesting that are tailored more towards food service pre-orders. My situation is that I have a Thanksgiving Pre-Order menu that is set up accordingly so people can choose to pick up on either Tuesday or Wednesday. 

1. On the View Cart screen, I want to force people to choose their pick up dates before being able to check out. Currently Square will auto-assign the earliest day and time available. If people are not forced to choose, and forget to edit, they will continue with the auto-assigned day/time. 

Customers do not always pay attention to that screen, or will forget to edit. I've had to communicate and confirm with 70% of my orders that the day they selected is correct. 

It does not matter to me if the option is available when "Selecting Location" or during the check out screen. As long as customers are forced to choose it and can not continue their order without selecting it. 

2. I want to be able to set pre-order parameters for entire Menus and not individual items for online orders. I have a dozen items that I have to go through individually and set the pre-order pick up days, and order cut offs. This would help manage pre-order menus available through the year, and would streamline the process. 

[kacey_k]

This would be a huge improvement for businesses that rely on holiday pre-orders. Being able to require customers to select a pickup date before adding items to their cart would reduce ordering mistakes and save businesses valuable time spent confirming orders manually.

I also agree that applying pre-order settings to an entire menu, rather than configuring each item individually, would make setup much more efficient, especially for seasonal or limited-time offerings. This would create a smoother experience for both sellers and customers.

[Manny_SelSq]

@waxwingbakery 

I’m not sure how customers order from your Holiday menu, but one idea would be to try a separate item for each pickup day.

For example, you could list “Thanksgiving Pie (Tuesday Pickup)” and “Thanksgiving Pie (Wednesday Pickup).” Set each item’s preorder window to just that day so customers choose the day when they pick the item.

I’d try it with one item first, especially if you offer specific pickup times. This is just a workaround for the holidays until Square adds this feature.