In-Store and Curbside Pickup with Square Online

Pickup is a flexible and convenient option for your local customers, especially if you’re selling food online. You can allow customers to request curbside pickup and text message notifications for a smooth and seamless experience.

Turn on Pickup

You can use Pickup with one or more locations. Business information from your Square account is automatically synced to the Square Online > Settings > Pickup & Delivery page, and you can set up each location individually.

Click the Set up button, then click the toggle to turn on pickup. You can also enable local delivery if you’d like to offer both. Click the toggle to enable Curbside pickup if you want to offer that option, then click Next to move on. You’ll follow the same process outlined below to set up each location, starting with pickup hours.

Set Up Pickup Hours

The store hours here are imported from the location settings in your Square account. If you haven’t already added business hours for your location, you’ll see the default hours (Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.). You can edit the hours here for pickup, but note that it won’t change the business hours setting in your Square account.

Tick the box for each day of the week that you will offer pickup on, then enter the hours for each day. You can add multiple time frames within a day by clicking Add range. This allows you to exclude certain hours, which is convenient if you would prefer not to handle pickups during regular busy periods.

Edit Pickup Timing and Settings

Next, select an appropriate prep time for pickup orders. Choose an average amount of time that’s likely to cover most of your orders.

Does your prep time vary depending on the item? You can specify a prep time at the item level as well. Simply edit the item from the Items > Item Library page and scroll down to the fulfilment section. The prep time you select from the drop down menu will only apply to this item.

If you’d like to control the number of orders that can be picked up at once, click the toggle under Pickup order limiting, then set the number of orders you’d like to allow. With this option turned on, incoming orders are automatically assigned a pickup time based on your settings. When the number of orders exceeds the limit you set, customers see a message during checkout that lets them know you’re busier than usual.

If you want to let customers schedule a pickup time, click the toggle to enable that option.

During checkout, buyers can choose a pickup date and time based on the business hours, order spacing, and prep times you set up. For example, let’s say that pickup is only available on weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and the prep time for orders is 30 minutes. If a customer placed an order on a Saturday, the first available pickup time would be Monday at 9:30 a.m.. If you don’t want customers to place pickup orders when you aren’t available, you can turn off pickup during those times.

If you want to set a minimum order amount for pickups, click the toggle and enter the amount. Orders that don’t meet this requirement won’t be eligible for pickup, and customers will see a message in the cart letting them know.

Finally, enter instructions for your customers so they’ll know how to pick up their order. Be sure to include any additional details that customers need to know when picking up an order.

Click Next to continue.

Update Fulfilment Settings

Use the tick boxes here to quickly change the fulfilment options for your items. Choose any combination of Shipping, Pickup and Delivery. Click the toggle to default to these settings for all future items. You can also edit the fulfilment setting for individual items.

To do so:

• Go to Items > Item Library from your Square Online dashboard.
• Click on an item to edit, select a fulfilment method, then save.

Click Done to return to the main Pickup settings page.

Edit Location Settings

Click the Edit location link if you need to make any changes. Use the Edit links next to each section to open and change the settings.

If you need to make changes to the location address, email or phone number, click Edit next to the address. Changes you make to the address or contact information here won’t affect your location settings in Square.

Edit Advanced Settings

Next, click the Advanced settings button. The options here are global and will apply to any location that has pickup enabled.

To prevent customers from submitting large orders that may be difficult to fulfil, click the toggle to enable quantity limits. Enter the maximum number of items you want to allow per order, and optionally include additional information about your policies on large orders. Customers who attempt to place an order exceeding the amount you set here will see this information in the shopping cart.

If you’re selling food online, you can enable tipping and select a default tip amount that will be automatically calculated and added to the order. Customers will see the tip as a separate line item when checking out, and they can change the tip amount before completing the purchase.
You can also edit the default fulfilment settings from here.

Tip: You can edit the fulfilment method for multiple items from the Items > Item Library page. Use the tick boxes to select items and then click Set fulfilment method. If you don’t see the button to set a fulfilment method, check to make sure you haven’t selected any non-physical items like events or memberships. These item types don’t have a fulfilment method, so the button won’t appear when they’re selected

When you’re finished editing the settings, click Save.

The Checkout Experience

When a customer places a pickup order, they can choose from the locations you enabled for pickup. If you’ve opted to allow pickup scheduling, they’ll be able to choose from among the hours and days you provided. If not, they’ll be given the earliest possible date and time slot based on your hours and prep time settings for the chosen location. If curbside pickup is turned on, customers can tick a box to request that before paying for the order.

Orders with mixed fulfilment methods will affect checkout. If a customer has an item in the cart that is shipping only and an item that can be shipped or picked up, they will only be able to select shipping during checkout. The same is true in the reverse – if the cart contains an item that is pickup-only and one that can be shipped or picked up, pickup will be the only option at checkout. If an order contains items that are pickup only, shipping only and both, they will see a message on the checkout screen letting them know they need to purchase these items separately.

Manage Pickup Orders

When you’ve finished preparing an order for pickup, navigate to the order in Items > Orders on your Square Online Overview page and click to open it. Click the Mark as Ready button on the upper right and confirm the items in question are ready for pickup. This will change the order status to “Ready” and send an email to the buyer. The Mark as Ready button on the order detail page will change to Mark as Completed, so you can change the status again when the customer has picked up their order.

Tip: Enable text message notifications in your checkout settings so customers can opt in to receive text notifications about their order status. When you mark an order as ready, a text message will be sent to the phone number they entered at checkout.
Text message notifications are currently supported in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada.

You can also allow your customers to send a text message to your business to notify you once they have arrived to pick up their order. To enable the text message notification feature, navigate to Settings > Pickup & Delivery on your Square Online Overview page, and you can set up each location individually. Click the Set up button to start, then below “Enable Pickup” you’ll see a toggle you can turn on that allows your customers to send you a text message notification.

Once this feature is enabled, a text notification will be sent to the customer when their order is ready for pickup. The customer can respond with Here to the message letting you know they are present to pickup their order, as opposed to notifying through a phone call. As soon as the order is brought to the customer and completed, you can update the order status to Complete in the Orders section of your Square Online Overview page.

There are a couple of things to note about the order ready status:

• You can not refund an item that is in Ready status, so you’ll need to change the status to Completed before you can process a refund.
• You can disable the “Ready” option in the Pickup settings, but doing so will automatically move all orders you’ve set as Ready to Completed.

Turn Off Pickup

To turn off Pickup, go to the Settings > Pickup & Delivery page on your Square Online Overview page. Click the toggle switch next to each location to disable pickup orders. You can turn pickup on again using the same toggle switch.