Every order you send out carries a cost you did not put on the price tag. The box it goes in, the courier who collects it, the parcel that comes back because the address was wrong — each of those eats into the margin before you have had a chance to count it. When you offer free shipping, the arithmetic gets worse. And because the volume of orders is the one thing you cannot control from week to week, the total is almost impossible to plan for.

That is the real shape of the problem. Daviah does not solve most of it, and it would be wrong to suggest otherwise. Packaging costs, outbound shipping rates, failed deliveries and return handling are not addressed anywhere in the platform. Online ordering in Daviah is pickup only — there is no shipping option, no delivery tracking and no courier integration — so the core of the pain, the cost of getting an order to a customer who is not standing in front of you, is entirely untouched. What this guide covers is the one narrow thing Daviah does handle: when a counter order needs to be refunded.

What Daviah does not address — and you should know this plainly first

If your store ships orders to customers, the expenses that make fulfilment hard to forecast — boxes, tape, labels, courier accounts, the occasional failed delivery, the parcel that comes back to you — are not touched by anything in Daviah. There is no shipping integration, no courier cost calculator, no return workflow and no way to take a delivery address at checkout.

Online ordering in Daviah is built for pickup at the counter. A customer places an order, pays by card through your own Stripe account, and collects in person. That is the boundary of what the ordering tools do. Everything beyond the counter door is outside it.

The one thing Daviah does handle: refunding a card order

When a counter order does go wrong — an item is unavailable, a customer changes their mind before pickup, an order is accepted and then cannot be fulfilled — you can issue a refund from inside the office. You do not need to log in to Stripe separately or ask someone else to reverse the charge.

Because the customer's card is only held when the order comes in and charged when you accept it, an order that nobody accepts is released automatically and nothing is charged at all. For orders that have already been accepted and charged, the refund is processed from the office.

How a pickup order moves through the counter

A customer orders from your website and pays by card. The card is held but not charged yet. When your staff accept the order, the card is charged. If the order sits without an answer, reminders appear on the Order screens, then alerts reach staff, and eventually online ordering pauses so no further orders come in while nobody is there to take them.

All of the money moves directly through your own Stripe account. Daviah takes no cut of the transaction — Stripe's fees are yours to pay directly.

What this means in a practical week

If you take counter orders and occasionally need to reverse one, you can do that from the office without switching tools. That is a small convenience, not a solution to the larger problem of fulfilment cost.

If the bulk of your pain is in outbound shipping — the cost of boxes, the courier account, the returns pile — none of that changes here. The honest use of this tool is for stores where the counter is the point of sale and pickup is the fulfilment model.

Where online ordering fits in the plan

Counter ordering — placing orders, accepting them, refunding them — is part of the Website and Members plan at $79.99 a month, or $819.99 a year. It is not available on the Website plan. You can publish your Catalogue on the website on any paid plan without paying for ordering, but taking card orders requires Website and Members.

Signing up is free and asks for no card. You can build the site and see how the ordering tools are set up before committing to anything.

Questions

Does Daviah help with outbound shipping costs?

No. Packaging, outbound shipping, failed deliveries and return handling are not addressed in Daviah. The ordering tools are built for pickup at the counter only.

Can customers place a delivery order through my Daviah website?

No. Online ordering in Daviah is pickup only. There is no delivery address field, no courier integration and no shipping option at checkout.

What happens if I need to refund a counter order?

You can issue the refund from inside the office. You do not need to log in to Stripe separately.

What happens if a customer's order is never accepted at the counter?

The card hold is released and nothing is charged. The order escalates through reminders on the Order screens, then alerts to staff, and finally pauses online ordering so no further orders come in while nobody is there to answer them.

Does Daviah take a cut of the order amount?

No. Card payments go directly to your own Stripe account. Daviah takes no application fee. Stripe's own fees are yours to pay directly.

Which plan includes counter ordering and refunds?

Website and Members, at $79.99 a month or $819.99 a year. The Website plan does not include ordering. Signing up is free and requires no card.