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Offering a robust set of order management features for all restaurants, Square extends that feature set by providing all the features a restaurant website needs from Square Online . In this article, we'll discuss what Square Online offers for restaurants (order menus online, press features such as delivery and self-orders), explain how to post menus and receive orders, and detail how to manage those orders, view analytics, and decide one of the restaurant's premium plans is right for your business.
What is a Square Online restaurant?
Square Online provides a platform for creating an online store that provides your menu with options for customers to add multiple items to an order and complete online payments. The system then sends the order to Kit Chen to honor it.
Square Online Restaurant
Additionally, Square Online offers restaurants the option to choose from delivery, pickup or self-service using a contactless menu system.
Square Online compares favorably with Square Restaurant POS (read our review here ) because it's entirely focused on the online ordering process, rather than solutions like physical payment hardware and team management tools. Having said that, Square Online Restaurant integrates directly into the Square Restaurant POS without any issues.
Some benefits from Square Online include:
An online page that displays your menu items with item details, pictures, and buttons for customers to place their orders.
Offers settings for delivery, pickup, and in-person self-service.
Direct connections to delivery services like Doordash and Postmates, whose delivery people are dispatched to your restaurant when an order is placed.
Text alerts for customers to track order status.
Option to skip the delivery service and use your own courier.
Shipping settings allow you to pass shipping on to customers, let restaurants cover some of the cost, or offer completely free shipping.
Minimum order setup and service fees to ensure every purchase is worth the money.
Order management through the Square dashboard and mobile app.
Order information panel to view details such as order price, tax and courier details.
Option to link your online menu to a QR code in your store, allowing people to be in your restaurant in a contactless, scannable state.
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How to Set Up a Square Online Restaurant
First, you need a Square Online account. They offer a free plan, so sign up here .
Once logged into your Square for Restaurant Dashboard, open the main menu and click the online icon.
NOTE: It is wise to fill in Square's restaurant information before proceeding, such as payment processing details, authentication and bank account credentials, as these are required for the restaurant system via Square Online.
Online button Square Online restaurant
It may ask if you want to continue the Square Online setup process. If so, just select you want to continue.
A setup wizard will now appear for you to fill out almost all the information for payment processing, online store, and delivery and pickup options.
On the first page, select the menu item you want to sell through your online store. You can also choose from items such as tickets, services, and in-kind, but we're now introducing you to everything you need in a restaurant.
Click the "Continue" button to continue.
select menu item
On the next page, choose how you want orders to be fulfilled when people choose from your menu.
For example, you can choose:
Shipping items
Pickup allowed
allow delivery
Allow self-ordering
Restaurants can definitely ship items to customers, but the options you'll most likely want to highlight include pickup, delivery, and self-service options. Or, depending on what you do, you can only have one or two of them.
Press the continue button to move forward.
How to Fulfill an Order Square Online Restaurant
Then, you have the opportunity to start building your website. The site can be the same as your previous Square or Weebly site owned by your business, or you can choose to build an entirely new site with menus for ordering and processing payments.
On this page, decide whether you want a simpler single order page or a full website. If you're just trying to get a menu online for delivery and pickup, we recommend starting with the single order page. Once you have time to fill it with elements like social media buttons, about pages, and photo galleries, you can scale to a full website.
Then select Continue.
Single order page or full website
Square processes your location information in the next step to help determine which areas you can ship to.
Add location information
You will be prompted to select an item based on what is already on the menu. For example, we've got a Chicago-style hot dog menu item ready.
If your menu is empty, feel free to return to the Square Online dashboard to add menu items to the site.
Select Menu Item - Square Online Restaurant
Now is the time to organize the layout email list of the menu website and incorporate more items and categories for the menu.
Click the Add button to continue working on these sections.
item or category
For example, we can add different styles of hot dogs to the menu, enter a price and state a description. They even provide an area to upload multiple images to add some visual appeal to the page.
Add menu item
Scroll down on the popup to view your fulfillment options. Not all new items go into the shipping category you want, so you may need to add them. You may also find that you want to limit certain things, such as certain items taking too long to be delivered, or maybe a mess by the time they get to the customer's door.
In this example, we will choose to deliver hot dogs via in-store pickup, local delivery, and self-order.
Save all menu items to view them on your website.
Fulfillment Options - Square Online Restaurants
Put as many items and categories as possible on the menu page. Use the drag and drop menu area to move specific menu items into the correct category. This automatically formats and organizes your web menus so people can easily find the right food and drink.
Organize the menu
You'll also want to configure any specific pickup and delivery settings.
To do this, click the "Settings" button on the next page.
Settings button
A pop-up window asks you to set a delivery time estimate.
Develop a range that is reasonable but also considers delays. For example, we can say that the delivery (the time after the courier picks up the food from the restaurant) takes about 20 to 45 minutes.
Click Save.
Estimated Delivery Time - Square Online Restaurant
On the next screen, you can toggle the Enable Pickup and Enable Delivery buttons, or just select one.
Pickup settings tell customers they can visit your website, pay for a food order, and then go to your physical location to pick it up. There is also an option to allow curbside pickup.
Enable delivery options Take advantage of on-demand delivery providers such as Doordash and Postmates. It also lets you utilize your own courier to save money and maintain control over the delivery process.
Enable delivery
As you can see, My Own Couriers sets a cost of $0.50 per order, and on-demand delivery sets a cost of $1.50 per order, which is on top of the actual delivery fee charged by these services.
If you decide to use the on-demand delivery option, you can choose from Best Available, Doordash, or Uber/Postmates.
Each has its own delivery fee. Doordash usually charges a flat fee. Uber/Postmates have a base fee and additional fees for longer distances.
Select the Continue button to configure your location settings.
Fulfill Square Online Restaurant
This page asks for details about your restaurant's location. You can also set elements such as schedule and minimum order quantities.
First, set your restaurant dining, pickup, and delivery times. There is a toggle button to use the same time for pickup and delivery. The final setting is useful if you have any restricted dates (like holidays).
Restaurant opening hours
Move down the page to see more settings.
The Preparation Time field asks you how long it will take to prepare the order. This helps delivery workers know when to pick up. It's also a way to keep customers informed.
The schedule section provides options to allow scheduled pickup and allow scheduled delivery. In short, customers can order their meal on your website for tomorrow or an hour later instead of receiving it immediately.
The Order Timing section is a space for specifying the number of orders that can be entered over a period of time. You don't want to overwhelm your kitchen, so you can limit the number of deliveries allowed at one time.
Prep Time Square Online Restaurant
Further down the page, you can fill in the "Minimum Order Amount" field, which requires a minimum amount to make delivery possible. That way, you don't spend money or time on delivering $5 orders that don't bring you any profit.