On-Demand Delivery with Square Online
With Square Online, you can sell prepared food and beverage items online and offer nearby customers a way to have their orders delivered by a courier from a reliable local delivery service provider (like DoorDash). Customers can even sign up for text alerts, which link to a live map for real-time order tracking and updates.
| Already have your own delivery staff? Try In-House Delivery. |
Local delivery is even better when set up with in-store and curbside pickup, 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.
Pricing
With On-Demand Delivery, you won’t have to pay commissions; just a flat fee of $1.50 + tax per order. You can choose to cover the fee, pass the local delivery costs on to your customers or cover local delivery for orders over a certain amount (e.g. free delivery for orders over $50). The fee will be deducted from the total for each local delivery order you receive in addition to the usual transaction fee.
Set up On-Demand Delivery
To set up On-Demand Delivery:
From your Account & Settings page, go to Fulfilment > Pickup & Delivery.
Select Set up location by the location you want to enable delivery for.
After completing your pickup details, indicate that you want to offer delivery by selecting Yes.
For third-party couriers, choose the On-Demand Delivery option.
Confirm or change your default service provider, and indicate how you prepare orders for delivery.
Select Continue to check which sites your location should be available on.
Select Continue to review your settings so far and finish. Then, select Edit to configure additional settings.
Set up delivery related settings, including delivery and service fees, minimum order amount and no-contact delivery.
Choose if you want your orders delivered at specific times or any time during your delivery hours.
Toggle the ability to mark orders as Ready before marking as Complete, and select when you want your order tickets to print.
Set the hours and days of the week customers can have their orders delivered.
Adjust any remaining Location details and Site visibility settings.
Select Save when finished.
Note: By selecting On-Demand Delivery as your local delivery option and proceeding, you agree to the On-Demand Delivery Terms of Service.
Alcohol settings
You may sell alcohol with Square Online if permitted by law in your area. Learn more about selling alcohol with Square Online for additional details specific to On-Demand Delivery.
Delivery settings
As you set up On-Demand Delivery, you can adjust the following delivery settings.
Charge delivery and service fees to offset any incurred costs.
- Delivery fee responsibility: Choose an option from the first drop-down menu to decide how you and your customer will pay for the delivery fee from the service provider. You can either pass the fee completely off to the customer, have your business pay the fee in full or break up the fee between you and the customer by either a percentage or whole amount.
- Service fee: Charge a service fee by a fixed amount or percentage of the order total.
Order timing settings
You can also adjust the following settings related to how orders should be timed.
Unlike In-House Delivery, automatic delivery times cannot be turned off for On-Demand Delivery. On-Demand Delivery couriers must be scheduled at the point of checkout, which requires an accurate estimate of courier pickup and drop-off times.
Since you’ll calculate and assign delivery 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 delivered? Orders can either be delivered at specific times (e.g. 12:30 p.m.) or any time during your delivery hours (e.g. 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.). By default, your customers will see an all-day delivery window based on your delivery hours.
- If a customer places an order during your fulfilment hours, what is the soonest that the order can be delivered? Delivery 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 delivery 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.
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How much time do you need to prepare an order for pickup or delivery? If delivery 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 catalogue.
How far in advance must a customer place their order? If delivery 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 delivery orders for future days? Toggle this option on to allow customers to schedule their delivery orders up to the number of days you enter (between seven and 30 days in the future). If the order contains an alcoholic item, the order can only be scheduled up to six 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 delivered at once, select the toggle and set the number of orders you’d like to allow. Incoming orders will be automatically assigned a local delivery 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 Fulfilment 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.
You can mark delivery orders as Ready before marking as Complete. This notifies the customer that their order is prepared and ready for delivery. 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.
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 delivery 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 delivery hours as well as any restricted dates that you don’t deliver (think major holidays).
These are the days of the week when customers can have their orders delivered. 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 the 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 a.m. – 5 p.m.). You can edit the hours and days here without affecting the settings in your Square account.
Check the box for each day that you’ll offer local delivery, then enter the delivery 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 deliveries at certain times of the day (like during your lunch).
Select +Add date to create restricted dates for any days that you won’t offer local delivery. 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.
Location details and site visibility settings
These settings help set up your location details and which sites they should appear on.
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 delivery 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.
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 delivery. To do so:
From your Account & Settings page, go to Fulfillment > Pickup & Delivery.
Select Advanced settings.
Under Large order settings, set a quantity limit to prevent unexpected large delivery orders, and include an optional custom message explaining how to place orders that are over the quantity limit.
Toggle on Restocking fee to charge customers the $4.25 + tax restocking fee for failed alcohol deliveries.
Select Save when finished.
Update fulfillment and prep time settings for items
If you haven’t already, be sure to visit your Square Item Library to assign Local delivery to the items you want to be fulfilled via On-Demand Delivery. You can also set up individual prep times for those items if some of them take longer to prepare. To learn more about updating fulfillment methods and prep times for items, check out how to Set up items for your online store.
Manage On-Demand Delivery 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 local delivery, 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.
Buyer experience
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 local delivery, the customer will see the menu for the closest location. If the customer’s address is outside of your delivery area, they’ll be asked to enter a different address.
Once a customer places a local delivery order, they’ll be given the earliest possible delivery date and time based on your hours, order limiting, prep time and delivery estimate settings for the chosen location. If no-contact delivery 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.
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 local delivery and another for shipping), they’ll see a message on the checkout screen letting them know they need to purchase these items separately.
Refunds
| CANCELLATION PERIOD | CANCELLATION FEE | DELIVERY FEE REFUND | TIP REFUND |
|---|---|---|---|
| Order Placement to Dispatch | None | Refunded | Refunded |
| Dispatch to Pickup | None | Refunded | Refunded |
| Pickup to Delivery | None | No Refund | Refunded |
| Post-Delivery | None | No Refund | No Refund |
If an appeal with the On-Demand Delivery service provider is successful, the disputed amount will be credited back to your Square account within 45 days. You’ll then receive an email from Square when the credit has been processed to your account. To see these adjustments:
- From your Square Balance Overview page, select a location to view.
- Select View all transfers.
- Select a report to review what’s listed under Total Collected > Other.
In the event of a cancellation, it’s solely your responsibility to determine and pay out the appropriate refund amounts agreed upon between you and your customer (as per your business’ refund and cancellation policy).
Review the On-Demand Delivery Terms of Service for more information.
Switch local delivery types
To switch between the local delivery types of in-house delivery and On-Demand Delivery in Square Online:
From your Account & Settings page, go to Fulfilment > Pickup & Delivery.
Select Edit by the location you want to change delivery types for.
Go to the Delivery tab.
Under Couriers, select how you’ll deliver your orders: My own couriers for In-House Delivery or On-Demand Delivery for third-party courier services like DoorDash.
Complete all other details and select Save when finished.
Turn off On-Demand Delivery
From your Account & Settings page, go to Fulfillment > Pickup & Delivery and select the toggle to turn off local delivery 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 fulfilment method. Learn more about your checkout options with Square Online for more information.
FAQ
To learn more, check out the On-Demand Delivery FAQ.