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 pickup settings, and you can set up each location individually.

To set up pickup for your business:

1. Go to your Square Online Overview page. 

2. Under Fulfilment, select Pickup & Delivery.

3. Choose the location where you want to offer pickup and click Set up location.

4. For “Do you want to offer pickup?”, select Yes.
   Note: If you have multiple sites, you can select which sites will show your location.

5. Click Continue.

6. Choose if you want Square to calculate and assign pickup times automatically. If you select Yes, Square will calculate a pickup date and time to show buyers during checkout based on your settings. If you select No, you can create a custom message and instructions for customers about their pickup.

Calculate Pickup Times Automatically

1. After you set up pickup for your location and select Yes to “Calculate & assign pickup times automatically”, select how you want buyers to pick up orders: at a specific time or any time during your pickup hours.

2. Next, choose the option that best describes the way you produce orders:

   1. I prepare each order individually as soon as it is placed.

   2. I prepare multiple orders at a time. If you choose this option, select whether customers can pick up on the same day they place their order or on another day.

   3. I prepare my pickup and delivery orders differently. You’ll only see this option if you’re also setting up delivery.

   We’ll use your selections to recommend the most relevant settings. You’ll still be able to edit all your settings. 
   Click Continue.

3. Review the summary of all your settings. You can edit them or adjust additional settings by clicking Edit in any section. See below to learn about editing your pickup settings.

4. Click Done.

Edit Pickup Timing and Settings

To edit the pickup timing and settings:

1. Go to your Square Online Overview page.

2. Under Fulfilment, select Pickup & Delivery.

3. Click Edit for the location you want to edit.

4. Select and adjust the options that apply to your business:

   Calculate and assign pickup times automatically

   • Timing: Set a prep time, cut-off and lead times, allow customers to schedule pickup times or limit the number of orders to be picked up at the same time.Toggle on Allow customers to schedule pickup orders to choose the number of days orders can be scheduled in advance, between seven and 365 days. If toggled off, customers will always see the soonest available fulfilment time. 

   • Workflow: Toggle on to mark orders as Ready before marking them as Complete. 

   • Fulfilment Hours: Set the hours and days of the week customers can pick up their orders.

   • Pickup Settings and Instructions: To allow customers to select curbside pickup at checkout, select the option Allow curbside pickup. Add a short message and instructions to inform your customers how they’ll pick up their orders.

5. Click Save.

You can use the Fulfilment Calculator on this page to test if your pickup timing calculations are correct.

Note: You can also set individual prep times for your items if some things take more time to prepare. To do so, go to your Square Online Overview page > Items > Site Items, and click on an item to edit. Finally, scroll down to the fulfilment section and select a prep time.

Under Scheduling, select the toggles to automatically assign a pickup time at checkout and enable scheduling for pickup. This lets buyers choose a pickup date and time based on your business hours and prep time. If you don’t select the toggle to automatically schedule a pickup time, you can manually share the pickup details with your customer. This allows you to manage order scheduling in a way that works best for your business (e.g. time slots, availability windows, preorders, etc.).

If you’d like to control the number of orders that need to be picked up at once, click the toggle under ‘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.

For example, if pickup is only available on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the prep time for orders is 30 minutes, when a customer places an order on a Saturday, the first available pickup time would be Monday at 9:30 a.m..

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. 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.

Click Save to move on.

Set Up Fulfilment 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 a.m.–5 p.m.). You can edit the hours here for pickup without changing the business hours setting in your Square account.

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

Click the +Add date link to create restricted dates for any days that you won’t offer pickup. For example, you may wish to exclude certain holidays that occur during your usual business days. You can add multiple restricted dates and set them to repeat or to 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 the store hours area of your Square Online Overview page. They must be added in the area described above to function as a setting.

Update Fulfilment Settings for Items

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

1. In your Square Online Overview page, go to Items > Item Preferences or SharedSettings > Item Preferences.

2. Under ‘Default item fulfilment’, select Edit.

3. Select the fulfilment method(s) of your choice to default to.

4. Select Save when finished.

All items imported in the future will default to your selected fulfilment method(s).

Note: You can edit fulfilment for your existing items at any time in your Square Online Overview page in Items > Site Items. Do this by selecting an individual item and going to the fulfilment section, or by using the bulk editing method.

Edit Location Details

Use this section to make changes to the location display name, address, phone number or email address. Changes you make to the address or contact information here won’t affect your location settings in your Square account.

Edit Advanced Settings

When you’re done, click the Advanced settings button. These options apply to delivery and pickup for every location.

Turn on quantity limits to prevent customers from submitting large orders that may be difficult to fulfil. 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 be blocked from checking out and see your message in the shopping cart.

You can manage restocking fees for on-demand alcohol sales, or enable arrival alerts for curbside pickup orders on the POS app. Customers can reply “HERE” via text message when they arrive, and you’ll see this on your POS.

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

Buyer Checkout Experience

When your 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 (or they’ll see your instructions if you handle this manually). 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 Orders in your Square Online Overview page, and click to open it. Click the Mark as Ready button 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.

Enable text message notifications in your Square Online Overview page in Communications > Email & Text Alerts by toggling on Text message alerts so customers can 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.

For curbside pickup orders, you can also allow your customers to send a text message to notify you on your Point of Sale once they have arrived to pick up their order. To enable the text message notification feature, navigate to Fulfilment > Pickup & Delivery in your Square Online Overview page and select Advanced settings to toggle on On-POS arrival alerts.

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 pick up their order (as opposed to notifying you with a phone call). As soon as the order is brought to the customer and completed, you can update the order status to Completed in the Orders tab of your Square Online Overview page.

Here are a couple of important things about managing orders:

• You cannot 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 & Delivery settings, but doing so will automatically move all orders you’ve set as Ready to Completed.

Turn Off Pickup

Go to your Square Online Overview page > Fulfilment > Pickup & Delivery and click the toggle to turn off pickup. You can turn pickup back on at any time and restore your previous settings.

You can also temporarily stop accepting all online orders regardless of fulfilment method. To do so, go to your Square Online Overview page > Settings > Checkout or Shared Settings > Checkout, then click the toggle to turn off online ordering.