Set up items for online pre-ordering
If you’re selling items for pick-up and local delivery which are only available on certain dates (like holiday specials), your customers can pre-order on your Square Online site and get the items when they become available.
When you set up pre-ordering, customers will see a badge on your item page showing that the item is available for pre-order, as well as the corresponding fulfilment window. When they add the item to their cart and proceed to checkout, they will see and can edit the pick-up date and time, as well as the location information.
Before your begin
Be sure to set up pick-up and delivery, and assign those fulfilment methods to items you want to set up for pre-ordering. Learn how to Set up items for your online store for details.
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It’s important to know that pre-ordering and scheduling serve different purposes. The primary differences between these two ordering techniques are the item availability and the length of time the item can be ordered ahead of the fulfilment date.
Pre-ordering: Pre-ordering is for items that are not currently available for purchase, and need to be ordered in advance to be picked up or delivered at some point after the items become available. Pre-orders are often used to create preliminary excitement about an item pending release.
Scheduling: Scheduling is for items that are already available for purchase, but the customer wants to order and pay now, and schedule the pickup or delivery for a specific time in the future (as long as it’s within your pickup and delivery hours). Scheduling is often used by restaurants, and other food and beverage businesses.
If a customer’s order contains a standard item along with a pre-order item, the pick-up date will be adjusted to the pre-order fulfilment date. The customer will see a notification about this change and can adjust their order, or order the items separately if they need to pick up the standard item immediately.
Set up online pre-ordering
Sign in to your Square Dashboard and click Items & orders > Items > Item library.
Select an existing item or create a new one.
Under Ordering, toggle on Sell as pre-order.
Select Edit pre-order settings to choose the date or date range when the item will be available for pick-up or delivery. You can choose any date and time from 24 hours up to 365 days in advance.
Optionally check Customise fulfilment hours to choose the specific fulfilment hours within the selected date range. For example, if you set the time range as 10 am – 2 pm, buyers can choose only these hours for pick-up or delivery on the specified pick-up or delivery dates. If you leave this option unchecked, your location’s standard pick-up and delivery hours will apply.
Enter a Pre-order cut-off date. This is a date and time after which you’d like to stop taking pre-orders for the item. The item won’t be available for pre-order online after the specified date and time. Click Done.
Click Save when finished.
You can make changes to your item’s pre-order status, edit dates and pre-order availability, or turn off pre-ordering at any time.