Christmas trading is often the busiest and most stressful time of the year for our customers. In order to help you get the most out of your Myfoodlink platform and ensure you're communicating the essentials with your customers, we've put together the following suggestions.
Delivery cut off
When you and your team have set a cut off for ordering, delivery and pick up before Christmas we strongly suggest that you do the following:
- update your email signatures with the cut off date(s)
- create a paper print out which lists your key dates and messages, and include it in orders so customers have a hard copy. You can also stick a copy up in store
- put a pop-up message on your online store (instructions below)
- create an image tile (something like ‘deliveries closed 25 December and 1 January') and have it on the homepage of your online store
Tell your customers when you’re closed
Advise customers of changes to your business' opening hours over the break, and any days that you’re planning to close:
- put a pop-up message on your online store (instructions below)
- post your holiday hours to your social media channels and your website
- create a print out and pop it up in store
- send an email out to your customers
Close your online store using your delivery slots
Close your online store for the times/days you’re going to be away. To do this we recommend closing the delivery slots for the days you’re planning to be closed. This will mean that the online store is still available and customers can still place their orders for future dates, but not for the dates/times you have closed deliveries for.
To do this, visit the Deliveries page in the backoffice of your online store. Using the up and down arrows on the date range, scroll through until you can see the date you would like to close from. Then next to each delivery slot for that day, click ‘stop accepting orders’. Do this for each day your store will be closed (eg: it might be from 24 December - 2 January, or it might be 25 December and 1 January only. Be careful to check if customers have already placed orders in these slots before you close them, as you will need to honour these or arrange an alternative with your customer.
How to post a pop-up message on your online store
- In the backoffice of your online store, navigate to the Settings page and select 'Special messages for customers', then click 'new broadcast'
- Give the message a name, for example 'Christmas/NY 2024'. This isn't seen by customers.
- Enter the message in the text editing field. Note that the best messages are very short and to the point; only include the vital details, otherwise you risk the whole message being ignored.
- Choose whether the store should be offline during the specified period
- Specify the 'Show from' and 'Show until' values
- Click 'Save'
Marketplace customers
For those customers using third-party delivery platforms such as Uber Eats and Menulog, don't forget to update your opening hours and availability here too. This is done via your individual marketplace portals, in addition to editing your ecommerce delivery availability in the Myfoodlink backoffice. You can not pause your marketplace listings from the Myfoodlink backoffice.
Questions? If you have any queries about what we've covered here or have another question for us, please lodge a ticket using the Support Widget in the backoffice of your Myfoodlink platform.