At this point, you should be ready to start taking orders! Before you do that however, it’s always a good idea to do a few test orders to make sure everything is working as expected.
System Status
We have three modes your store can be in and each allow different capabilities for your customer facing Online Ordering page; Live, Demo mode and Offline. Here is a description of each:
Demo mode: this is the mode that your Dashboard will be delivered to you in. It allows you to test any changes you make in a demo environment. Those who you share the ordering page with are able to see your site and your menu, create an account and even make a demo order - however they will never be charged for these orders. Once you come out of Demo , you only have the choice of Live or Offline- and all demo orders will be wiped.
Live mode: exactly as it sounds, this is for when you are ready to take and to fulfil orders.
Offline mode: if you need to stop your customers from seeing your webpage completely then select Offline mode and they will get a message to say that you are offline and not taking orders at the moment.
Test Orders
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Set your store to Demo Mode, using the dropdown on the top. The demo mode allows you to place and accept orders as normal - the only difference is that no payments will be processed.
- Open your public Web ordering page (the one your customers will see) by going to Styling → Web Orders → Preview in Browser. The URL in the page that opens is what you will need to share with your customers when you are ready for them to see it.
- From your public Online Ordering page, place some test orders; in demo mode, no payment will be taken, but you will be able to view the regular order journey.
- From the customer’s side, you should see an order confirmation page, and you should receive the order confirmation email
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From the store side, you should be able to view and processed the order through the Orders page. See more on managing orders
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Use the demo mode to experiment with any changes you might like to make, and to get comfortable with the overall functioning of the system before going to live. Once a store is set to “Live”, demo mode will no longer be available.
You can only test your payment integrations in Live mode.
For card payments, orders are pre-authenticated (a hold is put on the funds) when the order is placed, but the customer is only charged once the order is accepted. You can configure your system to accept orders automatically if you’d like customers to be charged straight away.