Square Online Q&A: How can we help grow your online orders?

[Tom]

Are you in the food & beverage business and looking to increase online orders, to expand your marketing reach, or are you just getting started with your website? You've come to the right place.

The Square Online team wants to ensure that your business is set for success for this year's holiday shopping season. Whether you’re just starting your online ordering page or if you’ve had one up and running for a while, we want to know how we can help.

On Wednesday, October 26, we hosted a Q&A in this thread that covered the following topics:

• Menu Optimization: Set up your menu to drive the most checkout conversions.
• Email Marketing: Reach your customers with updates and promotions.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Ensure that customers can find you online.
• Social Media: Stay connected and grow your reach.
• On-Site Marketing: Raise awareness about online ordering at your restaurant.

Have a look at the thread below to see what questions sellers brought up and learn more about the solutions that Square has to offer!

[OurCupCakery]

We offer events.  Is there an event calendar we could put on our website?  Does Square articulate with Eventbrite or any other event registration platforms?

[Tom]

Hi @OurCupCakery, thanks for bringing this up!

There isn't an event calendar built into the Square feature set at this time, though I'd like to surface this with a few more product folks. Can you share a bit more about how you offer events and what an ideal registration/purchase flow would look for your business?

Also, are you currently using any kind of workaround for this (for example, selling an event as an item)?

Thanks for your patience and we'll keep watch for your reply!

[TheWickandBurn]

I sell the events as an item.  But for reoccurring events, it only allow me to offer it up to about 4 months.  

I would love the calendar feature. 

[queeniesvegando]

How can I grow my new business with email and on-site marketing

[emusumano]

Hi @queeniesvegando,

With email marketing, we recommend you use a Pop-Up form on your website to capture email addresses for every website visitor. This helps you grow your reach and convert more window-shoppers to buyers over time. Once you have an email address, you can market to these visitors about new menu items, discounts, etc. For on-site marketing, you might consider adding a note to the bottom of your dine-in receipts that you offer online ordering directly on your website. You could also staple printed promos with QR codes to your ordering menu to third-party marketplace bags to drive more direct orders.

[JUYBoutique20]

Will this be done for the retail stores opinion as well?

[Tom]

Hey @JUYBoutique20, thanks for bringing this up! We don't have a retail-specific Q&A lined up in the near term just yet but we'll announce it in the calendar as soon as we have more details.

In the meantime, if there's anything that would be helpful for your business or if you have any feedback for online orders within the context of retail, definitely reply here to let us know — I'll see what I can find out. 💯

[AmericanoLive]

Improve SEO - on the coding side.

[emusumano]

Hi @AmericanoLive,

SEO in Square doesn’t require any coding, because settings are built right into your dashboard. Check out this help center article with further direction.

[BathnBliss]

can we get a coming soon option for products...they not ready for sale, but at least excite the customers, or a preorder section?

[emusumano]

Hi @BathnBliss,

This is a feature request that we can pass along to our product team! We’re always interested in hearing what customers are looking for and working hard to prioritize ongoing development into our product roadmap.  

[SarahCotta]

Please PLEAST implement a "Notify when item is back in stock" feature.  We have been begging for this for years.  Shopify already has this and has had it.  It will drastically improve sales for many of us.

[emusumano]

Hi @SarahCotta,

Thank you for this feedback! This has been relayed to our product team as feedback; just remember that we are constantly balancing hundreds of feature requests as part of our onboarding roadmap. It’s not ever “no, we don’t feel like building that feature” but rather “where does this fall on a priority list out of all requests that Square will commit to building this quarter or this year?" So while we don't have immediate plans to add this feature, we do have many exciting updates for restaurants throughout the rest of this quarter and planned for 2023. And we will update you if and when prioritization is able to shuffle to work on this request. Thank you for speaking up and sharing your feedback!  

[Vince22]

I’d like to know how can I bring more traffic to my website on square.com I sell very well in craft markets. But my online sales are almost nonexistent. I’ve even been tempted to close my online store. I’m always marketing my store on Facebook, Instagram, even Twitter. Even when someone makes a purchase I give a business card with my website and my QR code for my business page. 

[emusumano]

Hi @Vince22,

There are a few things to focus on here. First, make sure your Google integration is live so that when someone Googles your business name, they see your ordering site. Next, you want to make sure your SEO is properly set within Square Online. More on that here. You can even control the SEO for your menu items. We recommend you go to your Google listing and then clicking into your reviews. Are there themes with any of your menu items being mentioned? If so, you can bet that these are the items visitors are searching for online. Make sure to set the correct menu name as part of its SEO. You should also regularly be engaging your customer base to encourage them to order from you. Relying on passive orders is not enough. If you have the bandwidth, send out an email 1x per month to promote new menu items or to ask guests if they have plans for [most popular meal to order]. You should send your email a few hours before rush to make sure you’re reaching customers when they’re likely to be considering their next meal. Lastly, make sure that you have a primary call-to-action button on your main website with an action-oriented phrase like “Order Online” or “Place Order” for homepage visitors to immediately see — and act on — your takeout ordering. You should be telling an ongoing story on all of your marketing channels (website, email, social media, print, etc.) that your website is the best place to order from for exclusive menu items and lowest prices.  

[Lkam]

I want to incentivize customer to use the online ordering.  I want to offer a free item per customer who orders thru the web app.  How can I do that?

[emusumano]

Hi @Lkam,

Great! You can do this through Coupons in Square. 

[Honeyroseboards]

I have feedback, I wish there was a way to make specific items available for specific days. I’m closed Monday and Tuesday and would love to have specific Halloween items available on Halloween only for pickup. To my knowledge there’s no way to do this. Same with thanksgiving and Christmas. I want specific timing for those days without reconfiguring all of my days. 

[emusumano]

Hi @Honeyroseboards,

Great timing! We are currently in beta-mode with a Preorders product, and we would love to invite you to join the beta community. You can do so here.  

[greenvida]

We sell food items that are for pre-order and pick up on specific days. We cannot set up a pick up time by date or time. Only by a certain amount of minutes, hours, and days.  It has caused many issues because our customer Get the automatic email saying it ready when it actually isn’t.  TIA