Guide
Launching your Cobble storefront in a weekend
Claim it with Square on Friday, set it up on Saturday, take your first orders on Sunday. A practical plan for a shop that already runs on Square.
5 min read
If your shop already runs on Square, most of the work behind an online storefront is done. Your menu, your prices and your locations already live there. Cobble turns them into an ordering site under your own name, and every online order goes back into Square like any other sale.
This guide walks through one weekend: claim it on Friday, shape it on Saturday, open it on Sunday. It costs the business nothing: no monthly fee, no setup fee, no contract. Customers pay a 3% order fee when they order online, typically 20¢ to 99¢, unless the shop chooses to cover it, and Square's usual card processing applies, as it does today.
Friday evening: claim it with Square
Claiming takes about three taps: open your claim page, tap Claim, and approve Cobble on Square's own sign-in screen. No forms, no new password. Signing in with Square is how Cobble knows the business is yours.
Square lists exactly what you're approving. Cobble can see your menu and customers but can't change them, and it never asks for your team, your bank account or your payouts.
Cobble then brings over your items, modifiers, prices, photos and descriptions, and your locations with their hours. Online ordering stays off until you switch it on, so nothing goes live behind your back.
Spend the rest of the evening in Square. It stays the source of truth: change something there and your storefront follows. Worth a look before anyone else sees your menu:
- Photos. Give every item a real photo. A clear shot of the actual smoothie or sandwich does more than any description.
- Descriptions. One plain sentence per item: what's in it, and anything people ask about at the counter.
- Names. Online, the menu is all a customer has, so “Lg Grn Smthie” should become “Green Smoothie, large.”
- Modifiers. Check that sizes and add-ons read sensibly to someone tapping through them.
Saturday: your storefront, and the settings that run it
On Saturday the storefront gets built, and you don't build it. Luke, who made Cobble, puts it together from your menu and your shop. Until it's ready, your web address shows a coming-soon page instead of a half-built store. He reviews every page himself, then reveals it, and from then on it's yours to adjust from the dashboard. If anything looks wrong, text him.
Meanwhile, set up the parts only you can decide, each on its own page in your dashboard:
- Hours. Check the weekly hours for each shop. Customers can only pick pickup times when you're open.
- Closures. Add holidays and private events now. Thanksgiving added in October is one less thing to remember in November.
- Online Ordering → Wait times. Set how long an order takes. Customers choose ASAP or a 15-minute slot up to seven days ahead, and the earliest slot is always now plus your prep time, so nobody can pick 12:00 at 11:55.
- Online Ordering → Last orders. Stop pickup orders a set number of minutes before closing.
- Delivery, if you want it. Draw your delivery area in Locations, with its minimum and fees, then switch delivery on. Each delivery order books an Uber Direct courier for you. The customer pays the delivery fee, like on any marketplace, and follows the courier on a live map.
- Extras. Upsells offer a short row of items you pick, just before payment. Utensils & napkins asks at checkout whether customers want them, on delivery orders and, if you like, on pickup too. Catering appears too once it's switched on for your shop.
- Staff. Give your team their own logins. Staff see the orders board; owners keep banking and settings.
For the busy moments
Busy mode adds ten minutes to every wait time while the kitchen catches up. Pause stops new online orders for as long as you choose, with a short message for customers. Both are one tap from Online Ordering.
A few extras, like gift cards, loyalty and promo codes, run on Cobble's built-in checkout, so a shop that checks out through Square won't see them.
Sunday: test it, then tell people
Switch online ordering on from the dashboard, then place a real pickup order on your own phone, the way a customer would. Watch it land in Square next to the walk-ins, ready for the kitchen display or printer you already use, and on your dashboard's orders board. Mark it ready, check the order page updates, then refund it in Square.
Once the test order looks right, put your link wherever people already look for you:
- At the counter. A small card by the register with a QR code that opens your storefront.
- Instagram. The link in your bio, and a story the day it opens.
- Google Business Profile. Add it as your ordering link, so people who search for you land on your own menu.
- Receipts and bags. Print the web address on receipts, takeout menus and stickers.
- Your website. Add an “Order online” button to the site you have, or connect your own domain from the Domain page. Luke will do either for you.
Tell your regulars yourself
The most important step isn't in the dashboard. Tell the people who already come in. They pay your real menu prices online, with no app to download, and a word at the counter goes further than any post.
At Nella's Nutri-Bar, the first shop on Cobble, the customers who came back place 70% of all online orders. The people who already love your shop will use its storefront most.
Before you call it a weekend
A short checklist to run through on Sunday night:
- Claimed with Square, and your menu, prices and locations came over
- Every online item has a photo and a one-line description in Square
- Weekly hours checked, and the next few holidays added as closures
- Prep time and last orders set for pickup
- Delivery area drawn and switched on, or left off for now
- Storefront reviewed and revealed
- Online ordering switched on, and a test order placed and refunded
- Link at the counter, on Instagram, on Google and on receipts, and the regulars told