Order the same again: the weekly basket from last week's receipt

Imagine a baqala in Al Nahda and one of its regular families. Every Thursday it is the same basket: rice, laban, eggs, two loaves of bread, tissues, dish soap, a bag of onions, the children's juice boxes. Sometimes the mother sends a long WhatsApp message, sometimes she reads the list out on the phone, sometimes her son comes with a note. Every week the cashier types or scans the same twenty lines again, and every week something is missed.

The list already exists. It is last week's receipt.

The receipt link opens the receipt page

After the sale, the cashier shares the receipt by WhatsApp from the Receipts page. When the shop has its online address set up (Settings → Online), the message carries a link to the customer's receipt page. The page shows what the paper showed and nothing more: the lines, the totals, the VAT. No customer name, no cashier, nothing a stranger could use.

Under the receipt, the customer sees Order the same again.

With the online shop on: the cart is ready

If your online shop is switched on, the button opens it with the cart already filled from the receipt:

• every item still on sale goes in, with the same quantities;
• the prices are today's prices, not last week's;
• anything you no longer sell, or that is out of stock right now, is left out and named ("No longer available: …"), so the customer knows what to replace.

The customer checks the cart, adds a watermelon, removes the juice the children are tired of, and checks out like any other online order, for pickup or delivery. The order reaches your till like every online order.

Without the online shop: a QR for the till

If you do not run an online shop, the receipt page shows a QR with "show this at the till" instead. The customer walks in (or sends her son) and shows the phone. The cashier scans the QR with the till's scanner, as if it were a barcode, and the till refills the cart from its own copy of that receipt. A short message says what happened: "3 items of receipt 1042 are in the cart. No longer sold: …".

The cart is at today's prices, ready to adjust and pay. The online till even refills a receipt it printed itself while the internet is down.

Sizes and add-ons are not carried over

Order the same again brings back the products, not their options. A "large karak with extra ginger" comes back as karak: the base product goes in, and the cashier (or the online shop's default option) sets the size again. For a café that is one more tap; for a baqala it rarely matters.

Weighed items keep their weight (1.250 kg of onions comes back as 1.250 kg); items sold by the piece come back as whole pieces.

Tips for the shop

• Send the receipt by WhatsApp to your regulars. One message after the weekly shop, and next Thursday the list is one tap away. Tell them once: "Open last week's receipt and press Order the same again."
• Edit products, do not replace them. When a supplier changes a pack, change the existing product rather than deleting it and making a new one, so old receipts still find it.
• Keep the stock honest. The online cart leaves out what is out of stock, so a correct stock count means fewer surprises at the door.
• Read the message at the till. The "no longer sold" names are the moment to suggest a replacement.

Good to know

• The printed receipt does not carry the receipt page's link; the customer gets it in the WhatsApp message.
• The receipt page needs your shop's online address. Ordering into the online shop also needs the online shop switched on; without it, the page shows the till QR.
• A return cannot be ordered again, and a voided sale's page says that it was voided.
• Each tap makes a fresh cart, so a husband and wife ordering from the same receipt each get their own.

See order the same again on the e-receipt page and the online shop.