Pacing orders in online store?

[Smithward]

Hi,

We are using the pacing setting to limit the number of simultaneous pickups, but we've had a few issues, so have some questions...

We initially had it set to 2 orders per 15mins, but found that was allowing 3 orders to be placed at the same time. We have now changed that to 1 order per 15mins and that seems to be limiting it to 2 as desired. So, something may be wrong there...

Also, even with it set to 1 order per 15mins it's still allowing more orders within that timeframe (just not at the exact same time). For example, tonight we have 1 order at 6.15pm and 2 orders at 6.30pm, but it's still allowing 6.20pm as a pickup time. That conflicts with the two 6.30 pickups...

[Seamus]

Hey @Smithward,

This does sounds a little odd - for the multiple 6:30pm orders books for tonight, were these orders placed before or after you edited the order frequency?

For an issue like this there's not a whole lot we can do to troubleshoot this via the forum because it sounds like you'd need someone to look into your account, how things are set up, and to look at the actual orders themselves. Is it possible you'd be able to contact our support team to look further into this on 1800 760 137? If they can identify that something is not working as intended they will be able to file a bug with our eCommerce team to look further into this.

My assumption is that 1 order per 15 minutes means exactly that - what you're describing does sound like things are not working as intended. One thing I was able to do was locate your Online Store and check order times - I wasn't actually able to see any pickup time frames outside of on the hour and 15 minute increments (wasn't able to see a 6:20 option). Are you still seeing this issue?

[Smithward]

Thanks @Seamus  I'll place a call during support hours this coming week.

But yes, I couldn't understand why 6.20 was being offered in the first place either. I have a screenshot showing unexpected times being available. A customer had already been able to place an order for 4.50pm, so these unusual times must have been displaying for all/other users.

With regard to this specific 6.30 issue - there were 2 orders already placed for 6.30, so I went to check there couldn't be a 3rd placed, but I could see 6.30 was still being offered. So, I changed the max orders per 15min setting to '1', and checked again. This is when 6.20 was offered (and 6.30 was not, as I'd intended). It was at this stage that I found despite the setting was '1', it actually seemed to be setting a limit of '2' for exact same times, and then offering other times within the 15min range.

The pacing is important right now primarily to minimise the risk of having too many customers on premises at the same time and breaching social distancing requirements.

There's also an issue with open times depending on if the store is currently open or closed e.g. our open time is 4pm - but if you order when the store is CLOSED the earliest you can order for on the immediate next day is 4.30pm, but if you place an order for a later day (i.e. not the immediate next day) you can order for 4pm. If the store is currently OPEN you can place an order for 4pm the immediate next day and any day (the desired result). This is mainly an issue because many of our orders are placed earlier in the week for when we re-open on a Friday, so this bug means we can't get any orders for the first half hour of trade.

I'll call support during normal hours and run through all of this.

Thanks for your prompt response.

[Seamus]

Thanks for all this @Smithward!

It may be worth putting these issues in writing via an email to support as well so they can have your take in writing should a bug report need to be filed.

It sounds like there may be conflicting rules with prep time depending on whether the store is open or closed when the order is placed - is your prep time currently 30 minutes?

[Smithward]

Thanks @Seamus I'll email this to support. Yes, the discrepancy with opening time/first available order will be due to prep time. We have 30min prep set. Unfortunately the system thinks if we're currently open when an order comes in for the following day, then we would prep immediately and so it could be picked up at opening the following day. But, if the order arrives when we're closed then we would need the prep time the following day, starting from our 'open time'. This doesn't work for food premises, where food needs to be prepped immediately prior to pickup. And prep happens before the 'open' time e.g. we open to customers at 4pm, but we're prepping orders ahead of that. The system doesn't allow for prep to happen prior to open...

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[Seamus]

Thanks @Smithward,

Your explanation makes complete sense - if you have a 30 minute prep time you want this to start from when you open on the day the order is actually due to be prepped, not the previous one, which is particularly important if you're preparing fresh food.

I've shared your comments with the eCommerce team.

As an aside, I did notice some comments internally about order staggering that may go some way to explaining the issues you're seeing there. 

It looks like order staggering is based on a rolling time period broken down into increments of 5 minute periods. When a buyer places an order the system will look at the order time, add the prep time, and round that to five minutes. So the order you're seeing at 6:20 (let's assume there's 0 prep time for the sake of simplicity) is likely based on a 6:05-6:20 15 minute increment, where the order for 6:15 would be based on a slightly earlier increment of 15 minutes, and assuming the first customer will be in and out by the time the second arrives.

It took me a while to get my head around this one and I can't say maths and calculating rolling increments is my strongest quality, however I think this may give some reasoning behind what you're seeing with increments.

[Smithward]

Ah, ok @Seamus If the pacing is using 5mins instead of the stated 15mins that would explain the x.20pm orders. It still doesn't explain why it's allowing more orders at the exact same time though (i think 🤯)

And yes, for hot food businesses especially, prep time should be on the same day as pickup, although that would still mean we'd have to set an 'opening time' that was earlier than our actual opening, as the system doesn't allow prep during 'closed' hours....

Thanks for your reply 👍

[Seamus · Accepted solution]

Hey @Smithward,

I was able to find some further info about how this works. From a technical standpoint, the system uses a sliding 15 minute window, which iterates in 5 minute lots.

So if someone is trying to order at 6:03, it'll round their time to 6:05, then add prep time to that (if applicable). Then it will look at all orders in subsequent 15 minute period from that time. If it's full, it will push ahead by another 5 minutes, and check that 15 minute window, and so on until it finds an available slot. I imagine one order every 15 minutes should still only allow one per 15 minutes though - say 6:05 and 6:20. Of an order was booked for 6:15, then I imagine the next available would be 6:30, not 6:20. Available order times will change depending on orders prior, and times slots are not set up to be strictly always available on the quarter hour.  I hope this makes sense!

If you're able to find any recent examples of orders that have the same pickup time though, or any other conflicts to how this is intended to work, I recommend documenting them with screenshots and asking our support team to take a further look. While the pacing system is a little difficult to understand (I feel a visual/animation may explain things a little better!), the end goal is still to not have more customer arrives at one time than you choose to!

[Smithward]

Thanks @Seamus  This week the pacing has been working as expected. We haven't changed anything on the front-end.

Last Saturday 22/8 we had examples of multiple orders at the same time (two at 4.30pm) and when I tested I could see it was allowing doubles at all timeslots.

All good today, so hopefully it's fixed now 👍🤞

[Seamus]

Glad to hear things are running a little more smoothly now @Smithward, please reach out if you have any more questions or see any other issues 🙂

[Smithward]

Thanks @Seamus I've noticed a few smaller bug fixes have deployed too, thanks to the Team for those.

The pacing has one small issue today, which I will email to support. All but one of our early pick-up slots is full (i.e. 4.30pm,4.45pm,5pm,5.30pm,5.45pm,6pm,6.15pm) but instead of offering that remaining spot (5.15pm) the system is offering 5.20pm. Weird.