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.
Click the Set up button, then click the toggle to turn on pickup. You can also enable In-House Delivery if you’d like to offer both. Click the toggle to enable Curbside pickup if you want to offer that option, then click Continue to move on. You’ll follow the same process outlined below to set up each location.
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 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’d 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.
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 by item? You can specify a prep time at the item level as well. Simply edit the item from your Square Online Overview page in Items > Item Library/Site Items and scroll down to the fulfilment section. The prep time you select from the drop-down menu applies only 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 and enter 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 a.m. to 5 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 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 Continue to move on.
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:
From your Square Online Overview page, go to Items > Item Preferences or Shared > Settings > Item Preferences.
Under Default item fulfilment, select Edit.
Select the fulfilment method(s) of your choice to default to.
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 from 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
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. 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 see this information in the shopping cart.
If you’re selling food online, you can enable tipping and set a default tip amount that’s automatically calculated and added to the order. Customers will see the tip as a separate line item and can edit the tip amount before completing the purchase.
You can also enable arrival alerts for the POS app. Customers can reply ‘HERE’ via text message when they arrive, and you’ll see this on the POS app (latest version required).
When you’re finished editing the settings, click Save.
Buyer 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 in 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.
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.
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 in 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 Completed 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
Go to your Square Online Overview page > Settings > 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 and click the toggle to turn off online ordering.