Sell Online From Your Shop: Ordering and Local Pickup

This is the route we recommend for a physical shop taking its first online orders. It keeps things local, manageable and close to how you trade now.

Choose what to list

Pick twenty to fifty items you always stock and that customers ask about. Avoid one-offs and fragile oddities at first. Take a clear photo of each on a plain background and write two honest lines about it.

Pick an ordering tool

Look first at whether your till system already offers an online shop. If it does, stock counts can update both ways, which solves the biggest headache. If not, a standalone shop builder with a pickup option works; you will just count more carefully. See keeping stock in sync.

Set pickup rules

• Ready time. Promise a window you can always meet, such as the next opening day.
• Hold period. Say how long you keep uncollected orders.
• Collection proof. Order number and name is usually enough.
• Pickup hours. Match your opening times, or set a quieter slot.

Build the in-store routine

Check orders at fixed times, morning and mid-afternoon. Pick, bag, label, shelve, and mark the order ready so the customer gets a notice. Details in running local pickup.

Tell your regulars

A sign by the till, a line on receipts, a post on your social page. Your existing customers are your first online customers.

What about delivery?

Once pickup runs smoothly, local delivery or shipping can follow. Many shops find pickup alone is enough. Read selling online without shipping.