How can I take orders without taking payment?

THIS IS EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING.

Squarespace makes it pretty impossible to set up a checkout process  for offline payments, unless you like imperfect workarounds. Either Squarespace is simply unaware of such a need (seems unlikely) or their business model is beholden to the payment processors (they probably get a cut off the transaction back from the processor) - the suppression of such a basic feature is otherwise inexplicable.

I am venting my frustration here, because I like Squarespace, and would like them to fix this. In comparison -
Ecwid - extremely easy to use, great features set, design ethos - Soviet housing block utilitarian;
Shopify - works well except for the usurious toll they take on every transaction, including offline
WordPress/WooCommerce - the Rube Goldberg site builder with a Dewey Decimal System inspired admin dashboard

Why do I like Squarespace - in one word - design. Simple to use admin dashboard that does not hurt my eye or sensitivities, as well as outstanding website design. Where does Squarespace fall short - basic features critical to commerce such as offline checkout (and other finer customisation details, but lets stick to offline checkout today).

CURRENT WORKAROUNDS FOR OFFLINE CHECKOUT
- Create a 100% Discount Code so customers can checkout without a card. Issue - you are literally offering the customer a 100% discount since you can't even change the words (automatic description "Save 100% on any order" appears at checkout and in order conf email)
- Wishlist extension . Issue - the faq says this substitutes the checkout process, i.e., you cannot have some customers adding to Wishlist and others checking out with carded payments. This solution would be great for those whose entire business is offline but for others who have a mixed customer base (some with credit cards, some debit cards, some paying through bank transfers, others at store) this does not seem to be the solution
- Square for Offline - this is not available outside the USA! It is 2020, and the rest of the world is not so shabby as to be ignored

Squarespace should rightly be proud about its design, and its Values , one of which is Simplify.  Surely offering a simple solution to add Offline checkout is possible and long overdue? Anthony Casalena, are you listening, because no one else at Squarespace apparently is.


 

My clients need a Wishlist & Checkout option. This is normal for a good online shopping experience, especially for 'considered' purchases - clients want this as their customers expect it. PLEASE Squarespace add this to your ecommerce offering - its getting embarrassing at best or deal breaker at worst. Or can one of you amazing coders out there create an add on if it's possible? We'd buy it! 

On 6/4/2020 at 2:53 AM, paul2009 said:

Yes, and I’ve written a couple of guides about doing this:

Can I use a different payment processor with Squarespace?

How to add afterpay or Klarna to Squarespace (using Shopify Buy Buttons)

Bear in mind that this can work well for a very small inventory, but if you have a lot of inventory, you’ll soon get tired of using two platforms.

If you don’t need to manage inventory, you may also be interested in the wishlist extension that we sell. This allows customers to submit their cart to you without taking payment.

Hey there, 

Similarly to everyone in this thread, we are a chocolate wholesaler wanting to receive orders and charge customers later.  We sell retail that can be processed and charged immediately, but our problem currently is with the wholesale side of our business (these are two seperate stores on our site). We cannot use Squarespace in any capacity to properly calculate shipping to distributors because we cannot factor in cooling. If we could mark up each store's shipping differently, I don't think we would have this problem, but one shipping markup across the whole site doesn't make sense.

That being said, we would love to still let our wholesale customers place their orders through the site like anyone else; however, we don't want to charge them at the time they submit or without correct shipping charges.  What we need is to receive their order almost like a form, while still having the products, details, and options interactive in the Wholesale "store." 

If we could use a button at checkout only for the Wholesale store where customer orders are sent to us but we then call them to process payments with shipping, when they do ship, that would be amazing. I feel this is really common for many wholesalers, large or small - is there a solution? 

If we list the products as a gallery and include a form below, this obviously takes a lot of clicks, isn't any easier than calling us directly, and requires customers to type out their large orders, which could easily include errors. We'd love for them to still have a "cart" but pay later through us. 

Is there an integration where we can use a less-limited cart than what Squarespace currently offers?

Thanks so much!! Been really struggling with this issue

-Laura at Maggie Lyon

47 minutes ago, lauraatmaggielyon said:

Similarly to everyone in this thread, we are a chocolate wholesaler wanting to receive orders and charge customers later.  We sell retail that can be processed and charged immediately, but our problem currently is with the wholesale side of our business (these are two seperate stores on our site).

Hi Laura

I couldn't find a Squarespace website for your company. Can you provide a working link to the public and wholesale areas of the site, to give us some context?

23 minutes ago, paul2009 said:

Hi Laura

I couldn't find a Squarespace website for your company. Can you provide a working link to the public and wholesale areas of the site, to give us some context?

We haven't launched our new site yet because we can't go live on the Wholesale and Retail stores without offering correct shipping costs or removing the payment option from the Wholesale store. It's keeping us from going public. We sometimes do 15K in orders a day, so everything has to run smoothly from the get-go. 

The password protected site is maggielyon.squarespace.com

I too need to take customer orders without taking payment online. Our website is for a Private Members Club where we sell drinks to customers. We are being forced to have table service and would like customers to be able to place an order from their phone on the website and pay when we deliver to their table, however we cannot do this without requesting a payment option.

Come on it must be possible to bypass this option? Not sure why I should pay for add ons or extensions for something that you have decided to hard code in to the commerce function! Not everyone takes online payments for the products or services they sell. What can I do as I need to set this up by tomorrow.

Website is www.thewhitfieldclub.co.uk

Same problem here.   Our company is looking for a modern interface for desktop and mobile customers who can see our inventory and place a Purchase Order.    That is the FUNCTION that is needed.

Our inventory costs $250 ~ 50,000 per item.  They require 18 wheelers to ship, which requires distance and other factors before a final price.    These kinds of ORDERS cannot and SHOULD NOT be processed through Paypal or other small item store checkout systems.  We paid for the COMMERCE version of SquareSpace, so its not like SquareSpace is losing money per item sold.

So the system should show our QTY, the can add it all into a shopping cart.
They click checkout, which allows them to fill in their name, phone & email. (I created that form, it works fine)
But then there is the CHECKOUT FORM that we cannot remove!

By filling out the Purchase Order, we should get the info... We contact the customer, who most times they themselves HAVE to find transport, or they already have a transport service they use.  There are other factors such as customization or adjustments needed for the order.

Now, I can create manual product pages, but this is HIGHLY crumble-some and takes much more time to add.  It kind of works, but I should NOT have to this.  Rather than just clicking "add inventory" and selecting categories, pricing, photos and be done.  I would have to duplicate an item, remove pics and text and replace with other pics and text, then save the page.   

Using the STRIPE / Test mode is unprofessional and confusing, can appear like a scam... and how long is that supposed to go on?  Stripe makes money by providing a service, to use their services in a TEST MODE is abusive of their services which they may shut down at any time.  "Gift card" = NOPE!

This ONE THING has us stuck and if we cannot find a solution, than we cannot use SquareSpace at all.
Adding a "SKIP payment" and "Purchase Order" as options to "Make payment" would go along way to helping Square Space clients.  The main point of Square Space is websites made easy...  this is not it.

 

On 7/8/2019 at 2:20 AM, paul2009 said:

The URL of your site will help provide context for us and help us to see the issue and the template being used. For example, are you selling a single product or hundreds of products? Are you selling to schools only, or are they just one of the sectors that you supply, and other sectors pay online?

I looked on your site for Wishlist model.  It doesn't show how it works, no screenshots.   The features list looks good, but what does it do how does it do it?
- Does it replace SquareSpace (SS) inventory?
- Does it override SS shopping cart all together?
- If it does what it says it will do, then that is promising. 

If the cart amount is zero, there is no need to insert credit card. I use this workaround for Cash On Delivery (about that, will Squarespace wake up and implement that?).

I've created a custom cash on delivery 100% discount code, if you are selling a service (no shipping costs) you will be able to have an order created without payment  

This entire string reminds me of the old saying. If a tree falls in the woods and nobody is around, does it make any noise? Except we are the tree and SS is the sound.

CAN YOU HEAR US!!!

Please fix this issue

Unfortunately, I've read so many times here that SS doesn't really read the forums. If you want a feature or something, you will have to log a ticket with their customer care support. Frankly, I'm surprised SS ignores so much of what's going on in this forum because it's a HOTBED of insights as to what their customers want and need, and how they can make their platform, especially the Commerce plan, so much better. They market themselves as giving you the tools to create beautiful websites easily -- and I agree with that...my site/store is so much better than any of my previous stores BUT if you look under the hood, it falls short compared with competitors like Shopify. So many things on the backend that could be fixed/improved/added that would make Squarespace a truly great e-commerce platform, but unfortunately, from what I've observed, they seem to be in their own world.

It's disappointing that there's no movement on this issue. Our store accepts credit cards but some longtime customers prefer to send us a check. Telling them to use a discount code is beyond hokey. The Wishlist plugin doesn't help me because we DO take payments online as well.

I agree, I am very interested in a solution to this problem!!

Hi, 

I am having a similar issue trying to create a wishlist. I have looked into the wishlist extension but I can't figure out if my 7.0 version is compatible with the wishlist extension. Here is my website url. https://www.tipsywillow.ca/

How can I make an invoice for one of my foreign client? What are you using right now? 

So now I need to use Shopify for my shop and squarespace for my website...... atleast I can take a cheaper squarespace subscription then:)

In other words make this halen squarespace team...

This is a good work around

https://www.aweedmark.com/blog-main/2020/2/22/squarespace-shipping-retail-wholesale

Same problem here! We've set up a great page with our products, but we'd like our customers to be able to pay for their bread and pastries at the pickup point itself. 

Can you make this work Squarespace?

Our website is: www.lavett.nl

25 minutes ago, Lavett said:

We've set up a great page with our products, but we'd like our customers to be able to pay for their bread and pastries at the pickup point itself. 

As mentioned above, you may also be interested in our wishlist extension. If you aren't taking online payments and don’t need to manage inventory using Squarespace, this extension allows customers to submit their cart to you without taking payment. 

9 hours ago, paul2009 said:

As mentioned above, you may also be interested in our wishlist extension. If you aren't taking online payments and don’t need to manage inventory using Squarespace, this extension allows customers to submit their cart to you without taking payment. 

Is there another extension/addon that has the ability for customers to either add to cart (pay online as normal) and another button to be, for example, "cash on delivery" or "in-store cash payment"... etc....

Bump

I can't offer the 100% discount code because I also have other codes to offer on my products.

The more I use squarespace, the more I am getting really fustrated on the lack of shipping, local delivery and store options. It's lacking and we're in 2022! Covid should have the squarespace team implement better options!

Struggling hard with this same issue! 

Working on a client site that has been a member of Squarespace before they hired me and it pains me to have to tell them they are paying for a service that doesn't fulfill their needs. 

All the workarounds make for bad user experience. Hoping for a solution soon!

+1

Any news on this?

I am also experiencing same issue. No time for workarounds. My client needs offline payments without registration needed. I will probably consider other platforms 😔

On 5/27/2022 at 11:26 PM, goran3D said:

Any news on this?

I am also experiencing same issue. No time for workarounds. My client needs offline payments without registration needed. I will probably consider other platforms

 Dont think they will implement this, it's been 3 years since the first post, I switched to shopify which has COD, or you take the payment later on after the sale been made.

Also if you think about it, why would SS implement COD or similar? They don't get any incentives, commission or payment from Stripe from customers and businesses who prefer this method.

The work around for squarespace is offer a 100% off discount