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In-Store and Curbside Pickup with Square Online

With Square Online, you can sell food and beverage items online, and offer nearby customers a way to pick up their orders directly from your business — in-store or curbside. Customers can even sign up for text alerts to receive updates as their items get prepared and marked ready for pickup.

In-store and curbside pickup are even better when set up with local delivery, that way customers can choose the fulfillment option most convenient for them. To learn more about building your website first, check out getting started with Square Online.

Set Up In-store and Curbside Pickup

Square-Online-Pickup-and-Delivery-Settings-EN

To set up in-store and curbside pickup:

  1. From your Account & Settings page, go to Fulfillment > Pickup & Delivery.

  2. Select Set up location by the location you want to enable pickup for.

  3. Indicate that you want to offer pickup by selecting Yes.

  4. Decide if you'll calculate and assign pickup times automatically.

  5. Select Continue to complete your pickup setup.

  6. Select Continue to check which sites your location should be available on.

  7. Select Continue to review your settings so far and finish. Then, select Edit to configure additional settings.

  8. Choose if you want your ​​orders picked up at specific times or any time during your pickup hours.

  9. Toggle the ability to mark orders as Ready before marking as Complete, and select when you want your order tickets to print.

  10. Set the hours and days of the week customers can have their orders delivered.

  11. Set up pickup related settings, including a curbside option (business phone number required, minimum order amount, and pickup instructions).

  12. Adjust any remaining Location details and Site visibility settings.

  13. Select Save when finished.

Continue below for specific details on some of the steps and settings outlined above.

Order Timing Settings

You can adjust the following settings related to how orders should be timed.

Manual scheduling options

When you indicate that you won’t calculate and assign pickup times automatically (i.e. will do so manually), you can complete the following:

  • Short message: Provide a short description of when customers can expect to pick up their orders when they’re not automatically assigned times. This is shown in the cart and included in order notification messages.
  • Instructions: Provide more detailed instructions. This is shown during checkout, in order notification emails, and on the order confirmation screen.

Automatic scheduling options

When you indicate that you’ll calculate and assign pickup times automatically, you’ll have several questions to complete to set up the auto-scheduling system. Questions can include the following:

  • When can orders be picked up? Orders can either be picked up at specific times (e.g. 12:30 pm) or any time during your pickup hours (e.g. 9:00 am - 5:00 pm). By default, your customers will see an all-day pickup window based on your pickup hours.
  • If a customer places an order during your fulfillment hours, what is the soonest that the order can be picked up? Pickup time can either be on the same day they place the order or on a following day (i.e. one or more days in the future).
  • Do you start preparing orders as soon as they are received? If pickup times will be on the same day, you can indicate either that you generally start preparing your orders once you get them, or start preparing orders after a certain time. The second option is best if you wait until a certain time of day to review your orders and start preparing them afterwards.
  • How much time do you need to prepare an order for pickup or delivery? If pickup times will be on the same day, you can determine how much time it takes you to prepare an order. You can also set different prep times for individual items by editing them in your item catalog.
    How far in advance must a customer place their order? If pickup times will be on a following day, you can indicate how many calendar days before the customer would need to place their order.
  • Do you want to let customers schedule pickup orders for future days? Toggle this option on to allow customers to schedule their pickup orders up to the number of days you enter (between 7 and 365 days in the future). If toggled off, customers will be scheduled automatically.
  • Do you want Square Online to limit the number of orders that can be picked up or delivered at the same time? If you’d like to control the number of orders that can be picked up at once, select the toggle and set the number of orders you’d like to allow. Incoming orders will be automatically assigned a pickup time based on your settings. Learn more about limiting pickup and local delivery orders in Square Online.

Note: You can test if our calculations match your operations by using the provided Fulfillment Calculator. What’s shown in the calculator is what’ll be shown to customers at checkout.

Workflow Settings

Workflow settings should correspond to how your business operates.

Mark orders as Ready

You can mark pickup orders as Ready before marking as Complete. This notifies the customer that their order is prepared and ready for pickup. You can change the order status from Ready to Complete when you’re done with the order. If you leave this off, you won’t be able to mark orders as Ready.

Print order tickets

You can choose when you want your order tickets to print.

  • Print order tickets based on pickup and delivery time: Order tickets will print based on how much prep time is required before the order is due.
  • Print order tickets when the order is placed: All order tickets will print when the order is placed, even if the order is scheduled for a future pickup time.

You can also configure your Square Point of Sale to automatically print orders from Square Online. Learn more about printing your orders and setting up printed tickets for orders in Square POS.

Fulfillment Hour Settings

With these settings, you can set up your pickup hours as well as any restricted dates that you don't offer pickup (think major holidays).

Hours

These are the days of the week when customers can pick up their orders. Customers will still be able to place orders outside these hours. Select the first toggle to decide if you want your pickup and delivery hours to be that same or different.

The days and times you see here are synced from your Square account. If you haven’t added business hours for your location, you’ll see the default hours instead (Monday - Friday, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM). You can edit the hours and days here without affecting the settings in your Square account.

Check the box for each day that you will offer pickup, then enter the pickup hours. You can add multiple time frames within a day by selecting ”+”. This lets you exclude specific hours if you don’t want to handle pickup orders at certain times of the day (like during your lunch).

Restricted dates

Select +Add date to create restricted dates for any days that you won’t offer pickup. For example, you might exclude holidays that occur during your usual business days. You can add multiple restricted dates, and set them to repeat annually or occur only once.

Note: The hours you add to your website in the Square Online site editor on the Location and hours section are for informational purposes only, and do not function as a setting or sync to your pickup and delivery settings. They must be added in the area described above to function as a setting.

Pickup Settings

As you set up in-store and curbside pickup, you can adjust the following pickup settings.

Curbside pickup

Check this option to enable customers to select curbside pickup at checkout. They’ll be instructed to call when they’re at your business location. A business phone number will be required to enable this feature.

Minimum order amount

You can set up a minimum amount for orders to be eligible for pickup.

Pickup instructions

If you assign pickup times automatically, add pickup instructions to be shown in the customer’s order confirmation so they know where to go to pickup their orders and what information to have handy (like a name or order number).

Location Details and Site Visibility Settings

These settings help set up your location details and which sites they should appear on.

Location details

On this tab, make changes to your location display name, address, phone number, or email address. You can use the map to adjust the location used to determine your pickup area. Dragging the marker to a new position won’t change the address you’ve entered.

Note: Changes you make to the address or contact information here won’t affect your location settings in your Square account.

Site visibility

On this tab, choose what websites the location should be visible on. Your customer will be able to buy items from your location on the sites you select.

Advanced Settings

After your main setup is complete, you can also configure other advanced settings that will apply to every location you've enabled for pickup. To do so:

  1. From your Account & Settings page, go to Fulfillment > Pickup & Delivery.

  2. Select Advanced settings.

  3. Under "Large order settings," set a quantity limit to prevent unexpected large pickup orders, and include an optional custom message explaining how to place orders that are over the quantity limit.

  4. Toggle on On-POS arrival alerts to allow customers to reply HERE via text (rather than calling you) to announce they've arrived to pick up their order.

  5. Select Save when finished.

Update Fulfillment and Prep Time Settings for Items

Item fulfillment

Your location is now ready to accept pickup orders, but your items may not necessarily be available for pickup. To default the fulfillment method for newly-added items to a specific fulfillment method:

  1. From your Square Online Overview page, go to Items > Item Preferences or Shared Settings > Item Preferences.
  2. Under “Default item fulfillment,” select Edit.
  3. Check the fulfillment methods of your choice.
  4. Select Save when finished.

All items imported in the future will default to your selected fulfillment methods.

You can also set up custom pickup options for specific items:

  1. From your Square Online Overview page, go to Items > Site Items.
  2. Select Create new item and enter the item details.
  3. Select Edit in the Fulfillment section and update fulfillment methods for the item. If your item prep time is different from the default prep time for your location, select Edit next to Item prep time and choose an item-specific prep time.

The settings you choose will override the default pickup options and prep times you set up for your item location.

Note: You can edit fulfillment for your existing items using the bulk editing method.

Item prep time

You can also set individual prep times for your items if some items take more time to prepare. To do so:

  1. From your Square Online Overview page, go to Items > Site Items.
  2. Select a physical or food & beverage item from your site items list.
  3. Go to the Fulfillment section. If the fulfillment method includes Pickup and/or Local delivery, use the dropdown menu to select a different prep time for the individual item.
  4. Select Save when finished.

Preorders for Holidays and Special Items

If you’re selling items for pickup and delivery which are only available on certain dates (holiday specials, for example), your customers can preorder on Square Online and get the items when they become available. Check out how to manage Square Online item settings from your Item Library for more information.

Manage Pickup Orders and Alerts

When you’ve finished preparing an order, navigate to the order in your Square Order Manager. Learn more about managing online orders with Square.

When you enable pickup, you can also turn on text message notifications so customers receive texts about their order status. Learn more about customizing email and text alerts from Square Online for more information.

Customer Experience

While ordering

When a customer visits your Order Online ordering page, they’ll need to enter their address before viewing the menu. If you have multiple locations set up for pickup, the customer will see the menu for the closest location.

After ordering

Once a customer places a pickup order, they’ll be given the earliest possible pickup date and time based on your hours, order limiting, prep time, and pickup estimate settings for the chosen location. If curbside pickup is turned on, customers can check a box to request that before paying for the order.

They can also leave a tip on the order during checkout. Learn more about checkout options for more information on tipping.

Note about the customer experience

Orders with mixed fulfillment methods will affect checkout. If a customer has items in the cart with different fulfillment methods (such as an item for pickup and another for shipping), they’ll see a message on the checkout screen letting them know they need to purchase these items separately.

Turn Off Pickup

From your Account & Settings page, go to Fulfillment > Pickup & Delivery, and select the toggle to turn off pickup under the specific location. You can turn it back on at any time and restore your previous settings.

You can also temporarily stop accepting all online orders regardless of fulfillment method. Learn more about your checkout options with Square Online for more information.