A guide for shops that deliver on a set day
How to set a cutoff for local delivery on Shopify
If you deliver bread on Friday or farm boxes on Wednesday, you need orders to stop at some point before the van is loaded. This guide covers how to set a cutoff for local delivery on Shopify: what Shopify's own settings do, where they stop, how to hold a cutoff by hand, and how Still Works Standing Orders gives each delivery day its own closing time.
1. What a cutoff has to do
A cutoff is the last moment a customer can order, change or skip for a given delivery day. After it, the count is fixed and you can plan the bake, the pick, or the roast. A good cutoff does three things:
- It stops new orders for that day at a set time, for example Wednesday at 9 p.m. for a Friday run.
- It moves anyone who orders after the cutoff to the next delivery day, instead of turning them away.
- It tells the customer, before they pay, which day they are getting and when orders close.
2. What Shopify's local delivery settings cover
Go to Settings > Shipping and delivery > Local delivery and choose the location you deliver from. There you can turn local delivery on for that location, draw your delivery area by postal codes or by a distance from the shop, set a minimum order price, and set a delivery price. Checkout then offers local delivery only to addresses inside the area.
What you will not find there is a delivery day or a closing time. Plain Shopify does not ask the customer which day they want, and it has no setting that stops orders for Friday at a certain hour. Every order simply arrives in Orders marked for local delivery, and you work out the day yourself.
3. Holding a cutoff by hand in plain Shopify
You can get most of the way with a little routine. Here is a setup that works without any app.
- Say the rule where people will read it. In Online Store > Themes > Customize, add a line to the announcement bar, and a text block on the product page: "Order by Wednesday 9 p.m. for Friday delivery." Put the same words in the local delivery settings in the delivery information field so they show again at checkout.
- Make the day a choice. On each product, under Products, add an option called Delivery day with one value per upcoming date, such as Fri Oct 23 and Fri Oct 30. Each date becomes a variant, and the customer has to pick one.
- Close the day at the cutoff. At the cutoff, open the product and set the inventory for that date's variant to zero, with "Continue selling when out of stock" unticked, or delete the variant. The date then shows as sold out and nobody can choose it.
- Pull the list. In Orders, filter by delivery method to local delivery and by the date range since the last cutoff, then choose Export. The variant title in the file tells you which day each order is for.
- Add the next date. Add a new date as a variant so the following week is open.
The weak spots are plain. Someone has to be at a screen at 9 p.m. on Wednesday. Dates have to be added by hand every week, on every product. And nothing here repeats: a customer who wants the same loaf every Friday has to order again every week.
| Need | Plain Shopify |
|---|---|
| Who can get delivery | Yes: delivery area by postal code or distance, in Local delivery settings. |
| Customer picks a day | Only as a product option you add and remove by hand. |
| Orders stop at a set time | No setting for it. You zero or delete the date yourself. |
| A different cutoff for each day | Only by keeping track of each one yourself. |
| A list per delivery day | An export you filter and sort. |
4. The same cutoff in Still Works Standing Orders
Still Works Standing Orders is built around the day. Every standing order belongs to a delivery day you open, and every day has its own cutoff. It suits regulars who want the same thing on the same day, and it can also take one-time orders for a chosen day.
- Add the delivery run. In the app, open Set up, then the Locations tab. Choose "Local delivery: you deliver on the day" and give the run a name your customers know. Your Shopify delivery area from step 2 still decides who can pick it at checkout.
- Open the days and set the cutoff. On the Week tab, tick the days you deliver. Under "When do orders close?" pick how many days before, from one to seven, and a time in 24-hour form, for example two days before at 21:00. If one day needs more notice, untick "Same cutoff for every day" and give each day its own. Click Save the week.
- Choose what can be ordered. On the Plans tab, add a plan with the products you deliver and how often: every week, every two weeks, or every four weeks.
From then on, the product page offers only delivery days whose cutoff has not passed, and tells the customer when orders close for the first one. A one-time order is paid at checkout like any other. A standing order is charged when orders close, and the customer can skip or change right up to that moment. After it, the "Skip next" button on their account page is greyed out and any change applies to the following day. A day before the cutoff, the app emails each customer a reminder with the day, the closing time, and a link to skip.
On delivery morning, open Today for that day's list: the total of each item, then every customer and what they get, ready to print or download as a CSV file. Mark each order out for delivery and delivered as you go.
The app is free for up to 10 active standing orders, with one pickup location and one delivery run. Find it on the Shopify App Store.
Related guides
Where to go from here
The Still Works Standing Orders page has the plain description of what the app does and does not do. If something here does not match what you see, email the studio and it gets fixed the same business day.