# Taking Orders Online
> Source: https://development.fuze-store.com/docs/store/share-store/online-ordering

# Taking orders online

When online ordering is on, your store page grows a cart and a checkout.
A customer builds an order, and instead of it landing in your register on its
own, they get a **QR code to show you or message you**. You scan it, check it,
and ring it up yourself.

Nothing reaches your register without a staff member putting it there. That is
deliberate — it is your till, and no one else should be able to add to it.

  Online ordering is **off** until you turn it on. Your menu page works either
  way, so you can share your menu today and start taking orders whenever you
  are ready.

## Turning it on

Go to **Configurations → Preferences → Storefront**.

Your store page immediately gains a cart, a checkout, and a **Order now**
button. Nothing else changes — your menu, hours and contact details stay
exactly as they were.

**Require mobile number** is off by default, and for most stores it should
stay off.

The customer is not placing the order — they are showing you a code. By the
time an order exists, you are already standing in front of each other. A
required field on the way in mostly turns away people who would have bought
something.

Turn it on if you routinely call orders back before preparing them.

**Require a last name at checkout and booking** is also off by default. One
switch covers both your online checkout and your booking request form, so
turning it on asks for a full name in both places.

## Telling customers when their order will be ready

There are **two** times, and they belong to different people.

| Time            | Who sets it                | Where it shows                       |
| --------------- | -------------------------- | ------------------------------------ |
| **Requested**   | The customer, at checkout  | On the order, for you to read        |
| **Estimated**   | You, in the register       | On the customer's order page and SMS |

The customer's requested time is theirs — you cannot edit it, and nothing you
do in the register can overwrite it. It is there so you know what they hoped
for.

Your estimate is the promise. Set it in the register's **Service mode** sheet,
the same place you enter a delivery fee. Once you do, the customer's order page
switches from "You requested" to **Estimated delivery** or **Ready by** — one
time, never both, so no one is left wondering which one counts.

  You can also put your estimate in an SMS. Add `{{estimatedTime}}` to any order
  message template under **Configurations → SMS → Message templates**. It is
  blank when you have not set one, so it is safe to add before you start using
  it.

## Keeping the menu honest

A customer who orders something you cannot make has to be told twice — once by
you, and once by the refund. So your store page says **why** an item cannot be
ordered, not just that it cannot:

| What they see        | What it means                                              |
| -------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Sold out**         | You track stock for it and you are out                     |
| **Unavailable**      | You switched it off                                        |
| **From 5:00 PM**     | It is outside its serving hours right now                  |
| No label at all      | They can order it                                          |

Each of those comes from something you already control:

- **Switching an item off** — the availability toggle on the item, or select
  several and mark them unavailable at once. Use this to 86 something for the
  day.
- **Serving hours** — set **Available days** and **Available from / to** on the
  item. A breakfast dish stops being orderable at 11 and comes back at 6 the
  next morning, with no daily switching on your part.
- **Stock** — if you track stock for an item and it hits zero at your sale
  location, it shows as sold out on its own.

  Switching an item off always wins. If you mark something unavailable inside
  its serving hours, it stays unavailable — that is how you take one dish off
  the menu mid-service without touching its schedule.

Changes show up on the store page within about a minute — you do not need to
tell customers to refresh, and you do not need to wait for anything to expire.

## When a cart goes stale

Carts stick around for days, so someone can come back on Wednesday to an order
they built on Monday. If anything in it is no longer available by then, the
checkout says which item and why, and will not let them place the order until
they fix the cart.

They see it before they press the button, not after.

## What the customer's page shows

Once you have pulled their code into the register and created the order, their
page becomes a live receipt: every item with its options, the money broken down,
what they have paid, and where the order is up to. If it is a pickup, the
collection code appears once the order is ready — not before.

They can share or copy the link, so the person collecting does not have to be
the person who ordered.

### Under the code

Before you scan it, the customer's page shows their order code plus a short
"What happens next" section with up to three blocks:

- **Send your code** — buttons for WhatsApp, SMS, email, and Messenger that
  open with the order code already written in, so the customer can send it to
  you without typing anything.
- **Pay here** — your own payment accounts, so the customer can pay before you
  even ring them up. Only accounts you have marked **Show on storefront**
  appear here; see
  [Adding Payment Methods](/docs/store/payment-method/adding-payment-methods)
  to turn one on.
- **Find us online** — your contact details and social links, so the customer
  always has a way to reach you, even if their order expires or gets
  cancelled.