Set preparation time and cutoff time in BirdChime so customers can only book pickup or delivery slots you can actually fulfill. No more 4pm orders for a 5pm slot when you need an hour of prep.
In this video:
• Set preparation time in hours demo uses 1 hour for almond flour cookies. At 4 p.m. the 5-to-6 p.m. slot disappears from checkout because the customer can't physically receive the order in time
• Set preparation time in days switch the same setting to 1 day, today's date (Nov 23) disappears from the calendar, customer can only book from tomorrow onward
• Customize preparation time per day demo sets Monday-Friday at 1 day, Saturday and Sunday at 2 days. On a Saturday, customer can't book today or tomorrow, earliest available is Monday
• Set a cutoff time demo uses 4 p.m. as the daily cutoff with a 3-day lead. After 4 p.m., the 3-day rule kicks in, so a Saturday-evening shopper sees Tuesday as the earliest available pickup date
Who this is for: Shopify merchants whose products need real prep time before they can go out the door. Bakeries baking custom cakes. Florists assembling bouquets. Butchers cutting to order. Coffee roasters roasting same-day batches. Meal-kit brands packing the day before. Any store that's had a customer book a slot you couldn't physically deliver against.
How prep time and cutoff time work together: prep time enforces a minimum lead "I need at least X hours/days from the moment an order comes in." Cutoff time adds a daily deadline "after X o'clock, today is over for new orders." Use prep time alone if your prep window is constant. Add cutoff time when you also have a daily "we're done accepting orders for the day" moment that's earlier than your closing time. Bakeries usually want both: a 24-hour minimum prep, AND a 4 p.m. daily cutoff so anything after 4 p.m. counts as the next day.
Related reading:
Common merchant scenarios:
The Saturday bakery scenario. You run a custom-cake bakery that needs 2 days lead on weekends because Saturday-Sunday is when wedding cake orders pile up. Switch preparation time to "customize by day," set Monday-Friday at 1 day, Saturday and Sunday at 2 days. A customer ordering Saturday morning sees Monday as the earliest pickup Sunday gets skipped automatically because of the 2-day Saturday rule.
The florist Mother's Day scenario. You need 6 hours minimum to assemble bouquets on regular days, but on Mother's Day you need 12 hours because volume spikes. Either bump preparation time temporarily, or set a Mother's Day cutoff time of, say, 8 a.m. with a 24-hour lead so orders placed after the morning Mother's Day rush automatically slip to the next day.
The 4 p.m. cutoff scenario. You close at 6 p.m. but everything ordered after 4 p.m. realistically can't ship today because you're already closing down. Set cutoff time to 4 p.m. with a 1-day lead, and Shopify checkout stops offering today's pickup or delivery slots the moment the clock hits 4 p.m. The customer sees tomorrow as the earliest option instead of trying to book a slot
you can't fulfill.
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