Store options
Settings that affect the time and date that a customer can order are available in the Fulfilment Type and Opening Times pages.
Fulfilment type settings
The following fulfilment settings can be set per fulfilment type (collection, delivery, dropoff).
| Option | Values | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Require users to choose order slot | Enabled / Disabled | When enabled, the customer must select a date and or time when their order should be ready. Because no time option is presented, customers can order at any time. When disabled, a message can be set to inform customers roughly when they should expect their order. |
| Pre-order | Enabled / Disabled | When enabled, customers can place an order when the store is closed for fulfillment when the store is open. |
| Pre-order days advance | 0 – 14 | How many days in advance the customer can order for. For example, when set to two the customer can order for today, tomorrow and the day after. When 0, the customer can only place an order for the same day. |
| Minimum wait time | 5 minutes – >1 day | The minimum time in advance that the customer can order for. For example, if the wait time is set to 30 minutes, a customer can only select a time that is a minimum of 30 minutes from now. |
| Order time interval | 5 minutes – 1 day | The time between the time options present to the user. |
Opening time settings
Open times restrict the times of day that customer can order for.
| Option | Values | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Opening and closing time | Start of day to end of day | Start and end time of the opening time block. |
| Max capacity | Unlimited, 0-100, Disabled | The number of orders that can be placed per time set in the order time interval. For example, if capacity is set to 5 and the order time interval is 30 minutes, only 5 orders will be allowed per 30 minutes.
If the capacity has been reached, the time will appear as unavailable to the customer. When set to disabled, the customer will never see an option for a time within this opening/closing time. |
Example scenarios
Immediate fulfillment (eg coffee shop)
If you are fulfilling orders as soon as they are placed, the following settings can be used:
- Require users to choose order slot: Enabled
- Preorder: Disabled
- Minimum wait time: Average time for you to prepare an order
- Order time interval: Suggested between 15 minutes – 1 hour
- Opening time sale capacity: Approximate number of orders you can accept in the order interval time (eg 5 orders per 15 minutes)
Customers can only order while the store is open (within the opening hours). Customers cannot place any orders while the store closed, even if it is open later the same day.
Same day fulfillment (eg Takeaway)
If you are fulfilling the same day, the following settings can be used:
- Require users to choose order slot: Enabled
- Pre-order: Enabled
- Pre-order days in advance: 0 (Today only)
- Minimum wait time: Average time for you to prepare an order
- Order time interval: Suggested between 15 minutes – 1 hour
- Opening time sale capacity: Approximate number of orders you can accept in the order interval time (eg 5 orders per 15 minutes)
Customers can only place an order for the current day at a time when the store is open. Customers can place an order for a time later in the day when the store is open (eg customers can order at 8:00 for fulfillment at 9:00 if store opens at 9:00).
Fulfillment next day or later (eg Food delivery, E-commerce)
If you are fulfilling next day or later, the following settings can be used:
- Require users to choose order slot: Enabled
- Pre-order: Enabled
- Pre-order days in advance: 1-14 days
- Minimum wait time: 1 day or more
- Order time interval: 1 day
- Opening time sale capacity: Approximate number of orders you can accept in the order interval time (eg 20 orders per day)
Daily order interval
Setting the order interval to 1 day will ensure that there is a maximum of one time slot per opening and closing on a given day. For example if your store is open 09:00 to 17:00 with an order interval of 1 day, the customer will be presented with a single option for that day without a time. If two opening and closing times are present on the same day, two options will be provided (eg “Monday 09:00 – 12:00” and “Monday 14:00 – 17:00” if the store is open 09:00 to 12:00 and 14:00 to 17:00).
Minimum wait time
Setting the wait time to 1 day or more will enure that customers can only select a time from tomorrow onward.
Examples
The following example shows how this can be implemented:
- Opening times: 09:00 – 17:00, Monday to Friday
- Requires time slot: Enabled
- Pre-order: Enabled
- Pre-order days in advance: 3 days
- Minimum wait time: 1 day
- Order time interval: 1 day
The following times will be presented to the customer as the next available time:
- Monday 10:00, next option is ‘Tuesday’ (The Tuesday slot ends before 24 hours from Monday 10:00)
- Monday 15:00, next option is ‘Tuesday’ (The Tuesday slot ends before 24 hours from Monday 15:00)
- Monday 18:00, next option is ‘Wednesday’ (The Tuesday slot ends after 24 hours from Monday 18:00, therefore the next slot is ‘Wednesday’)
In the above example, the cutoff point for next day ordering is any time before the end of service.
To implement a next day order cutoff before the end of service, you can add additional time to the wait time. The following is the same example as above with the wait time set to 1 day + 2 hours.
- Monday 10:00, next option is ‘Tuesday’ (The Tuesday slot ends before 27 hours from Monday 10:00)
- Monday 15:00, next option is ‘Wednesday’ (The Tuesday slot ends after 27 hours from Monday 15:00, therefore the next slot is ‘Wednesday’)
- Monday 18:00, next option is ‘Wednesday’ (The Tuesday slot ends after 24 hours from Monday 18:00, therefore the next slot is ‘Wednesday’)
Different fulfillment per fulfillment type (eg Collection and delivery)
All the above options can be set per fulfillment type. For example, this would allow configuration for immediately fulfillment of collection orders and pre-order for the next day onward for delivery.
You can use the opening time fulfillment capacity options to limit which fulfillment types are available at different times. For example, if you want to allow collection Monday to Friday but delivery is only available on Friday, you can set the Fulfillment Capacity to disabled for Monday to Thursday for delivery only within the opening times.
Unrestricted fulfillment (Other use cases)
If you cannot determine the fulfillment date and time when an order is placed, or the existing settings don’t match your fulfillment requirements, you can allow orders to be placed at any time without the customer entering a date and time at checkout. You can then contact your customers via email or SMS to update them on the status of their order, or set an expected time when accepting orders.
To do this, set “Requires timeslot” to disabled.