Square announces On-Demand Delivery for Square Online Store sellers

Sellers can now dispatch delivery drivers for orders placed directly on their website

Today Square announced the availability of on-demand delivery for Square Online Store. In this challenging new business environment, it’s more important than ever that sellers have access to the tools they need to sell online quickly, efficiently, and affordably. Now, with on-demand delivery, Square Online Store sellers can dispatch a courier through delivery partners for orders placed directly on their website.

Wally Sadat, CMO of The Kebab Shop, a local chain of restaurants in California and Texas, has been using on-demand delivery for Square Online Store during our beta test and said it helped him manage costs and retain customers during recent months. “This new feature helped us keep our doors open and continue serving our customers during the recent downturn,” he said. “The ability to customize delivery limits and costs to our customers was especially powerful, as it helped us remain competitive at a cost our business can afford.”

Traditionally, to enable delivery most sellers list their menu on food delivery platforms because the restaurant doesn’t have their own couriers. This approach is often expensive because these platforms charge a commission to fulfill the delivery for each order. With on-demand delivery for Square Online Store, sellers can take control of their fulfillment process by offering delivery to their loyal customer base directly from their own website.

When an order is placed on the seller’s online store, a courier from the restaurant’s delivery partner is dispatched to the business location, picks up the order, and delivers it to the buyer. The buyer receives text updates with links to live maps to track delivery progress. Sellers pay a flat fee of $1.50 per order to Square, plus a fee to their delivery partner that is calculated in real-time based on distance and other factors. Sellers can pass this fee entirely to the buyer or offer custom delivery promotions. When applied across hundreds of delivery orders each month, sellers can save a significant amount on per-order costs.

Additionally, when buyers place an order through Square Online Store, sellers receive their contact information in the Square Customer Directory and are able to maintain sales history for those customers. When paired with other products like Square Marketing and Square Loyalty, sellers can strengthen customer relationships, create open lines of communication, and incentivize patrons to keep coming back.

Sellers can get started with on-demand delivery powered by Postmates now, with additional delivery partners coming soon. Processing is free on all on-demand delivery orders through July 8, 2020—up to $50,000 in sales. Plus, Square is also waiving dispatch fees until July 1, 2020. Full terms and promotional details are available here.

On-demand delivery is just the latest feature Square has built to help sellers take their business online. Every business has different needs, and by using Square Online Store, sellers can fulfill orders however it makes the most sense for their operation - whether that’s via curbside pickup, shipping, local seller powered delivery, or working with delivery partners.

To hear more from Square about additional resources and updates on Square products, please reference our COVID-19 resource hub.