What are Bottle Drops?

Drops are the space where you can setup reminder messages to remind your customers to place their orders, as well as the place where you setup both autofill and autocharge for your subscription memberships. 

If you have two memberships (a la carte and weekly subscription) you'll need to create a drop for each membership to ensure that your a la carte orderers do not get autocharged by the system. 

How to setup a Drop:

https://www.loom.com/share/77eb407b68a449828a45dfd0d7b8bdbc?sid=46fbd182-0b68-4a81-8595-b3ebf017cda8

Step 1: Access the Drops Section

Navigate to the 'Sell' tab on your Bottle dashboard. Click on 'Drops' to access the drop settings. In the top right-hand corner, click on 'New' to create a new drop.

Step 2: Name Your Drop

Name your drop; for this example, we're naming it 'Test'. Note that the name is internal and doesn't affect duplicates.

Step 3: Save and Configure Settings

After naming, click 'Save'. This will open a new page where you can configure the settings for your drop.

Step 4: Set the Store for Reminders

Choose the store linked to the drop. This is important as reminders sent to customers will include a link directing them to this specific store.

Note: The "store to use for carts" setting should, by default, be set to the 'use the store the customer is subscribed to' option. You can use the other option for special holiday stores/drops. 

Step 5: Select Target Groups

Under 'Groups,' select the customer groups to receive reminders. These groups are typically your membership tiers, but can also include any list from your Bottle Dashboard.

Step 6: Define Production Days

Specify the production days that you want customers to be able to order for. This should align with the production days that you want customers to order for, as defined in your fulfillment methods.

Step 7: Create Reminders

Set reminders for your customers. These are scheduled messages that include a unique link sending them to the store to place an order.

Step 8: Configure Autofill Settings

Choose how the system should autofill the customer's cart. Options include refilling from the last order or matching the number of items in each category.

Step 9: Set Autocharge and Autofill Timing

Decide if autofill should run before reminders or autocharge. This determines if products will already be in the cart when customers receive reminders or at the time of autocharge.

> Run before reminders: the carts will autofill based on last week's order before the customer receives their reminder texts. The customer will receive that text, click the unique link sent to them, and have a full cart based on last week's order.
> Run before autocharge: this option will wait to fill carts until it's time for autocharge to run. This will leave the customer's cart empty (unless they go in and manually fill it) until the autocharge time.
[Note: You can leave these options blank if you are sending this drop to a la carte members and you do not want them to have a cart autofilled for them at all. If you want weekly subscription members to receive a blank cart, we would recommend having the autofill run before the autocharge, that way they have up until the autocharge to make changes and confirm their order before orders are added for them]

Now you can choose an autofill type. The autofill type determines how the system will autofill the orders. 

> Refill the cart from the last order: This puts the exact same items in the customer's cart that they ordered last week. If you change your menu weekly, we would recommend the second type or using fallback products to ensure your customer never receives an empty cart. If you rarely change your menu, I would recommend sticking with this option.
> Match the number of items in each category: This option starts from the top of the category the customer ordered from last week and adds products until it hits your minimum or the amount they ordered last week. For example, if your customer ordered four products from the dinner category and three products from the lunch category last week, they will receive the same number of products from each of those categories. However, they will not necessarily be the same products they ordered the previous week. We recommend this type if you change your menu weekly/often.

Step 10: Implement Autocharge

Set a specific date and time for autocharging customers. This is used for implementing a recurring subscription model.

[Note: You'll only want to set an autocharge for subscription members. If this is a drop for non-subscribers (a la carte/one time orderers), please skip this step.]

Step 11: Make the Drop Recurring

Set the interval at which the drop should recur. You can adjust the frequency and how far in advance of the production day the drop should be set up.

Now, you'll add the store that you'd like to send when sending out your reminder messages. 

Conclusion

• Confirm all settings are correctly configured and review them for accuracy. Save any changes and your drop setup is complete.