Local Line is packed with features to streamline your in-person sales. Learn more about which options are available and get tips on how to save time and effort
If you sell in-person at a market or retail pop-up, Local Line has several features that are tailored to making the process as quick and as easy as possible. In addition, we have collected some tips and tricks you may not have thought of to reduce effort when creating and managing your orders.Features
Barcode scanner
You can use a barcode scanner to scan barcode labels on your packages when creating an order. Add package codes to your product packages in Local Line, print labels and attach them to your packaging, then simply scan it! Learn all about barcode scanning.
Default payment method and fulfillment method
Each of your price lists can have a default payment and fulfillment method set, so when you log a new order in your backoffice using that price list, they will be automatically selected to save several additional clicks. You can find these in your price list settings at the bottom of the Eligible Payment Methods and Eligible Fulfillment Methods sections, respectively:
Change calculator
When you select a custom payment method on the log order screen, the Calculate change box is displayed:
After adding all the products to the order, enter the amount of money the customer has given you in this field and click Submit and the system will calculate the difference from the total so you can easily make change. No more calculator needed!
In-person payments
You can of course accept cash in person and also use your customer's store credit balance, but if you want to give your customers the convenience and flexibility of paying by card, there are two solutions available:
Square Terminal - If you are already using Square to process online payments, you can also take in-person tap, chip and swipe payments with the Square Terminal. After connecting your Square Terminal in Local Line, when logging an order in your backoffice you can choose your Square gateway payment method and then send it to your terminal to process the card payment.LocalPay Terminal - There are two different terminals available for LocalPay. Both terminals connect via WiFi and can accept tap, chip and swipe payments. Learn more about LocalPay
Other useful tips
- Having a dedicated price list for your in-person sales with only a subset of your products you have on-hand can significantly speed up searching and adding products to an order. If you don't have a spare price list available, then at a minimum you should make sure the price list you're using is well-organized and up-to-date.
- When manually logging orders, you are not required to select a customer. However, if you want to be able to more easily track your in-person orders, you might consider creating a "dummy" customer account that is dedicated for in-person sales so you can easily find and update the orders later (you could also use a dedicated pickup location that you've set as the default). Alternatively, if you want to be able to provide an email receipt to customers, you can create a new customer on the log order screen, and the only required field is email address.
- You will need a reasonably fast and stable internet connection for the best experience, especially if you are using one of the payment terminals. Tethering to a cellular phone can work, but only if the signal strength is good to excellent. Poor signal strength can lead to slow loading times, network timeouts, and failed payment transactions.
- To save some clicks when logging orders, consider leaving the orders unpaid and unfulfilled until the end of the day. If you have used a dedicated customer account or fulfillment method to log all your orders, you can then easily update them in bulk using the filters and bulk actions in the Orders table.