Give each delivery or pickup day its own cutoff

Instead of one weekly order cutoff for all your days, each delivery or pickup day closes for orders on its own schedule, for example 2 days before at 8:00 PM. Customers choose pickup, local delivery or shipping and a day before checkout, and each renewal is charged at the cutoff of the customer's day.

Steps

1. Open Settings and find Delivery scheduling. Choose A cutoff for each delivery or pickup day.
2. Under Fulfillment methods, tick how customers can get their meals. Pickup uses your Shopify locations with local pickup turned on. Turn on Local delivery only if you use Shopify local delivery. Shipping is for addresses outside your local delivery area.
3. Click Edit on each row and choose its days, which menu week those days deliver (the same week, or the week before for weekend boxes), and its cutoff, for example 2 days before at 8:00 PM. You can also set hours, and let customers pick a time within them.
4. Optionally add unavailable dates (holidays) for all methods or only some.
5. Click Save. The first time, Shopify asks you to allow the app to customize delivery options at checkout. Approve it.
6. If you use Delivery zone check (postal codes), customers who choose local delivery are asked for their postal code before checkout.

Frequently asked questions

Should I use one weekly order cutoff or a cutoff for each day?

Ask when you need your final count of meals. If you shop and cook once a week for all your days, keep one weekly order cutoff: you get one total and one shopping list, and customers whose day comes later in the week simply order further ahead. If you cook before each delivery or pickup day, use a cutoff for each day: every customer orders the same time ahead, and you get a separate count for each day. Getting Started shows both side by side with your own days.

What does the customer see?

When they continue to checkout from the menu page, a window asks how they want their meals, then shows the open days of the week whose meals they chose, each with its order cutoff. For pickup they choose a location and, if you set one, a time. Their choice is shown on the order and on the subscription line. In the customer portal they can change their usual delivery, or change only the next one, until its cutoff. Changing the day from their Shopify account page isn't available yet.

When is the customer charged?

Each renewal is charged at the cutoff of the customer's chosen day, so a Wednesday pickup that closes on Monday at 10:00 AM is charged then. Until that moment they can still change the meals, the day or the method for that week. Because each customer's charge follows their own day, this can't be combined with charging all subscribers at the same time each week (Menus > Rotation).

What happens to subscriptions I already have?

They keep renewing the way they started, on your weekly order cutoff and billing. Only subscriptions started after you switch use a cutoff for each day. If you switch back to one weekly order cutoff, subscriptions started on per-day cutoffs keep the delivery already scheduled for them, at its own cutoff, and follow your weekly schedule after that.

Can a customer choose a different delivery method at checkout?

Yes, on stores without Shopify Plus. Shopify's checkout still lists every delivery method. The app puts the method and pickup location the customer chose first, but it can't stop them from picking another one there. If they do, the order follows what they chose at checkout, and so does the subscription from the following week: on the same day when you offer that method then, otherwise on that method's nearest day. When the day didn't match, the order is tagged Servd: delivery changed at checkout and its note says what the customer chose before and at checkout, so you can contact them about that delivery; the subscription page shows the same notice.

Why does Shopify offer a different pickup location than the one the customer chose?

Shopify only offers pickup at locations that stock the products in the cart. Make sure your meal plan product and your menu products are stocked at every pickup location; the settings page warns you about locations that don't. If a pickup order's meals can't be added because a location doesn't stock them, the meals are still saved on the subscription.

Where are the meals on a local delivery order?

Shopify doesn't allow apps to add products to a local delivery order after it's placed, so the meals for that week are listed in the order's Additional details instead of as items.

What happens on an unavailable date?

If a customer's usual day falls on a date you marked unavailable, that week isn't moved automatically. The customer is asked to choose another day before the cutoff. If they don't, the week is skipped and not charged.