How to Ship Your Restaurant's Food

Nationwide

Your regulars move away. Their parents visit once, fall in love with your hot sauce, and fly home. Every December someone asks if you can mail a box of cookies to their sister in Ohio.

That's demand you can't serve with pickup and delivery alone. Shipping lets you sell to anyone, anywhere — and it's a lot less complicated than it used to be.

What Ships Well

Start with products that survive a few days in a box without refrigeration:

• Sauces, dressings, and rubs — the easiest win for most restaurants
• Baked goods — cookies, biscotti, granola, shortbread, sturdy breads
• Coffee beans and tea for cafes
• Merch — mugs, shirts, tote bags
• Holiday gift boxes that bundle two or three of the above

Skip anything that needs cold-chain shipping until you've got the basics running. Frozen and perishable shipping is a different business with different costs.

Turn On Shipping Next to Pickup and Delivery

On Gegsy's Pro plan, customers can choose Shipping at checkout right alongside pickup and delivery. You set it all up from Menu → Shipping — our shipping setup guide walks through every field. The short version:

1. Pick a ship-from location. That Square location's point of sale fulfills every shipping order, so the right kitchen gets it no matter which location the customer was browsing.
2. Choose what can ship. Your categories and items sync from Square. Turn on shipping for the ones that travel, and give each a weight.
3. Set your rates. Flat rate per order or per item, free shipping over a threshold, or tiers by order total, item count, or weight.
4. Map your sales tax. Pick which Square tax applies to shipments to each state where you collect.

Show Live Carrier Rates

Flat rates are simple, but they're a guess. Connect a Shippo account and customers see live carrier rates at checkout, so you're never undercharging on a heavy box going cross-country. Then buy the actual label in Square once the order comes in.

Gegsy Tip: Add your real box sizes as packaging presets and mark one as the default. Carrier quotes are only as accurate as the box they think you're using.

Offer Free Shipping the Smart Way

Free shipping sells, but it shouldn't be free on a single jar of sauce. Set free shipping to kick in above an order total — for example, $50 — and let the customer add a second item to get there. That threshold quietly raises your average order.

Use Shipping Zones to Control Where You Ship

Shipping rate profiles let you offer different rates by region. Start with the lower 48 states at one rate. Add Alaska and Hawaii separately (or leave them out) once you know the real costs.

Build a Holiday Gift Box

Shipping really pays off in November and December. A "best of" box — your sauce, a bag of cookies, a mug — makes an easy gift for anyone who's ever eaten at your place.

• Create the box as its own item in Square so it syncs like everything else.
• Give it a cutoff date for holiday delivery and say so on the item.
• Pair it with online gift cards for the customers who'd rather let the recipient choose.

Promote It to People Who Already Love You

Your best shipping customers have eaten your food already. Tell them:

• A banner on your ordering website: "Now shipping nationwide."
• An in-app notification to your app customers on the Pro plan.
• A card in every takeout bag in November.
• A post on your Google Business Profile.

The Bottom Line

Shipping turns your best-selling sauce or cookie into a product that sells far past your delivery radius. Start with two or three products that travel well, set a free-shipping threshold, and have a gift box ready before Thanksgiving.

👉 See what's included on Pro, or get started with Gegsy.