Toast Online Ordering Location Confirmation: Turn It On, Then Test Every Route

In Toast Web, go to Takeout & Delivery > Branding & customization > Branding & customization configuration. In the Menu Page Configuration section, turn on Order Location Confirmation. It is off by default. Once it is on, Toast says guests who reach your online ordering page without first choosing a location from the location picker see a popup asking them to confirm which location they are ordering from.

That exception matters. A guest who chooses a store from your location picker does not get the popup, so not every guest will see it. It is meant for guests who land on a store's ordering page without making that choice. A website button, QR code, bookmark or pasted link can lead straight to a store page or to the picker, so what decides whether the popup is expected is where each link actually goes, not what kind of link it is. Turn it on, then test every way guests reach your ordering page, starting with the routes most likely to send someone to the wrong store.

This guide is based on Toast's documentation, not on a test in a Toast account. We have not turned the setting on or placed an order with it. The test matrix below is for you to run on your own pages.

What Toast has documented

Two Toast sources cover this setting, both read on October 3, 2026:

• The announcement, dated September 25, 2026, says the change has been available at all Toast locations since September 17, 2026, and lists the affected countries as "All." That is Toast's rollout statement. It does not guarantee the setting already appears in your account, so check.
• The help article Customize Your Toast Online Ordering Page, last updated September 30, 2026, gives the menu path, the setting name and the default. The announcement links to this article.

Between them, the two sources establish these points:

• Who gets the popup: guests who land on the online ordering page without first selecting a location from the Location Picker. In the announcement's words, it applies to guests who reach the page "from anywhere other than the location picker."
• What it does: it shows a popup (the help article calls it a modal) asking the guest to confirm the location they're ordering from.
• Default: off.
• Prerequisite: the article covers the next generation of Toast Online Ordering. It says that if you are not a Toast Online Ordering customer, you must subscribe.
• What it replaces: according to the announcement, restaurants previously had to add their own popup to their website and online ordering page.
• The benefit Toast claims: fewer orders placed at the wrong location. Toast gives no figure, and we have none either.

What the documentation does not say

Neither source describes what the popup shows (the location name, address or something else), which buttons it has, or whether a guest can switch stores from it. They also don't say whether it comes back on a repeat visit, behaves differently on a phone, changes with pickup or delivery, or applies to each location or to the whole brand. They also don't cover a restaurant with only one location, where there may be no picker at all. Nor does the documentation say the popup moves, cancels or refunds an order that has already gone to the wrong store. Treat each of these as an open question for your own test, and don't tell staff or guests what the popup does until you have seen it on your own page. The only popup behavior this guide treats as documented is a prompt asking the guest to confirm the ordering location. The store name, address or other details it shows, its buttons and whether guests find it clear all belong in the Observe and Still unknown lines of the matrix below.

Why the location picker exception changes your setup

The location picker is the page where a multi-location brand lists its stores so the guest can choose one. Toast's article describes an updated location picker page for multi-unit owners. In the Settings section of the same page, you choose which locations are attached to your brand's ordering URL.

Toast skips the popup for guests who choose from the picker because they have already made a choice. The catch is that a guest who taps the wrong store on the picker gets no second check. The popup can't fix a picker where two stores look the same. Before relying on the popup, make the picker itself clear:

• Location names. In the Other Settings links, Toast's article lists Update Location Name, which opens your Restaurant Information page. A name that includes the street or neighborhood is easier to tell apart than a brand name followed by a number.
• Locations map. The article describes a Locations Map toggle that shows or hides a map of where the restaurant is, in the upper right of the ordering page.
• Footer. Customize Footer lets you show or hide information in the ordering page footer. In Toast's screenshot description, the options include hours and location.

A fictional two-location link map

The restaurant below is invented for this example. Juniper Dumpling has two stores in Exampletown: Juniper Dumpling – Mill Street at 18 Mill Street, and Juniper Dumpling – Mill Square at 240 Mill Square. The names are close on purpose, because similar names make a wrong pick easy.

Start by listing every route into ordering and where each one lands. The "Popup expected?" column comes from Toast's description of the setting, not from a test. The answer depends on where a link lands, not on whether it is a button, QR code or bookmark, so open each link and record its destination before you fill in the column. "Fresh visit" means a new private browser window with no picker choice first. Confirm each answer on your own page.

Write your own version with the real link behind every button and code. A label that reads "Mill Street" while the link points to Mill Square is a website problem. The popup might help a careful guest notice it, but fix the link. For the broader website checks, use what a first restaurant website should include.

Turn it on

1. Write down where you start. Make the link map above for your own stores. Take a screenshot of the current Menu Page Configuration settings so you can change it back.
2. Open the page. Log in to Toast Web and go to Takeout & Delivery > Branding & customization > Branding & customization configuration.
3. Turn on the setting. In the Menu Page Configuration section, turn on Order Location Confirmation.
4. Save it and check the live page. For social media links, the article says they show up once the changes are published. It doesn't give a publish step for this setting. Use whatever save or publish control your screen shows. Then open a store's ordering link in a private browser window to see what guests see.
5. Check which locations the brand covers. In the Settings section, Toast lists the locations attached to your brand's ordering URL. The documentation doesn't say whether the popup setting applies per location or per brand, so check a direct link for every store.
6. Keep your own popup until the retirement check passes. If your website or ordering page already has a custom "confirm your location" popup, leave it in place until every item under Before you retire your own popup, after the matrix, is marked passed. That includes test 9, which checks how the two prompts interact. If your popup also appears after a picker choice, removing it leaves those guests with no second confirmation, because Toast's popup skips them.

The acceptance matrix

Run these tests after you turn the setting on, and again after you rename a location, add a store, change the website or print new QR codes. "Expected" is what Toast's documentation supports. "Observe" is what you check yourself. Record what happened in the Result line. Don't copy the expected result into it. Stop before payment unless the store manager has agreed to a test order.

1. Location picker entry

• Before you start: the brand ordering link that opens the picker.
• Expected: after the guest chooses Mill Street on the picker, no popup. Toast skips it for guests who chose from the picker.
• Observe: the menu page that opens is Mill Street, not Mill Square. Check the name and, if you show them, the map and footer location. Can you tell the two stores apart on the picker without already knowing the streets?
• Still unknown: nothing about the popup. The open question is whether your picker names are clear enough.
• Result: ____

2. Direct ordering URL

• Before you start: each store's own ordering link, opened in a new private window with no picker choice first.
• Expected: a popup asking you to confirm the location.
• Observe: whatever store details the popup shows, if any, which buttons or controls it offers, and whether you can close it without confirming.
• Still unknown: Toast does not document the popup's content or choices.
• Result: ____

3. Website order buttons

• Before you start: a list of every order button on your website and the link behind each one.
• Expected: a button that goes straight to a store page, opened in a private window with no picker choice first, shows a popup asking the guest to confirm the location. A button that goes to the picker shows no popup once the guest chooses a store there.
• Observe: every button opens the store its label names. Check the header, footer, menu page and any location page.
• Still unknown: whether your website builder's own popups or overlays get in the way.
• Result: ____

4. QR codes and bookmarks

• Before you start: each printed QR code and each saved bookmark or shared link, with the destination you recorded by opening it: a store page or the picker. Mark any you haven't opened as unknown.
• Expected: it depends on the destination, not on whether the link is a QR code or a bookmark. A link that opens a store page directly, on a fresh visit in a private window with no picker choice first: a popup asking the guest to confirm the location. A link that opens the picker: no popup once the guest chooses a store there. A link you haven't opened: no expectation until you have.
• Observe: scan each code with a phone camera. Does it open the store whose counter it sits on, or the picker? Record what you find. Separately, open each store-page bookmark a second time in the same browser and note whether the popup appears again. That is a repeat-visit observation, not something Toast documents.
• Still unknown: whether the popup appears again on a repeat visit or remembers a guest's earlier confirmation, for example with a cookie. Toast doesn't say.
• Result: ____

5. Wrong store, then switching

• Before you start: the Mill Square direct link, opened in a new private window with no picker choice first, by someone who meant to order from Mill Street.
• Expected: a popup asking the guest to confirm the location they're ordering from.
• Observe: whether the popup shows anything that tells the guest this is Mill Square, and how the guest gets from there to Mill Street, whether through a button in the popup, the picker or the back button. If they had items in the cart, does the cart carry over or empty?
• Still unknown: Toast doesn't describe which store details the popup shows, a change-location option in it, or what happens to the cart. Don't promise guests either until you have seen it.
• Result: ____

6. Two similarly named stores

• Before you start: both store names exactly as guests see them, and each store's direct link opened in a new private window with no picker choice first.
• Expected: a popup asking the guest to confirm the location. Toast doesn't document which store details it shows.
• Observe: whatever store details the popup shows, if any. Show it to someone who doesn't work for you. Can they tell which store it means? If it shows only a name, or no store details, "Mill Street" and "Mill Square" may be too close to tell apart.
• Still unknown: which store details, if any, Toast puts in the popup.
• Result: ____

7. Phone and narrow screen

• Before you start: at least one iPhone and one Android phone if you have them, with larger text turned on once, and a store's direct link opened with no picker choice first.
• Expected: Toast's documentation describes no difference on mobile.
• Observe: the popup fits the screen, its text is readable without zooming, any buttons can be tapped and it closes properly.
• Still unknown: mobile layout. Also, if you use a separate ordering app, the documentation covers the online ordering page, not apps, so test the app separately.
• Result: ____

8. Pickup and delivery

• Before you start: which services each store actually offers.
• Expected: the documentation doesn't tie the popup to an order type.
• Observe: on a direct link, start a pickup order and, where offered, a delivery order. Stop before payment. Note whether the popup appears before or after the guest chooses a service, and whether the store stays the same throughout.
• Still unknown: any interaction with service type or delivery address.
• Result: ____

9. Your existing custom popup

• Before you start: a list of any location popup or banner you added yourself on the website or ordering page, and the routes where it appears.
• Expected: nothing documented. Toast only says a custom popup used to be necessary.
• Observe: on each route in your link map, picker routes included, record whether guests see your popup, Toast's, both or neither. Where both appear, do they point to the same store? Which one comes first? Can a guest get past both without confusion?
• Still unknown: everything about how the two interact. These results are part of the retirement check after test 10.
• Result: ____

10. Stale links

• Before you start: old links from past emails, printed flyers, social profiles and business listings, plus any link to a store that has closed or moved.
• Expected: nothing documented for removed or changed locations.
• Observe: where each old link lands: a store page, the picker or an error. If it opens a store page, record whether the popup appears and whether that is the store the link was meant for.
• Still unknown: how Toast handles a link to a location you've taken off the brand.
• Result: ____

A copyable log for each route:

Route:
Link opened:
Lands on (store page / picker / error):
Picker choice made first? (yes / no)
Fresh or repeat visit:
Device / browser:
Popup appeared? (yes / no)
Store details shown, if any:
Buttons or controls, if any:
Store that opened:
Switch-store path, if any:
Cart kept? (yes / no / not tried)
Your own popup also shown? (yes / no)
Expected (from the card):
Matches expected? (yes / no)
Checked by / date:

Before you retire your own popup

Toast's documentation gives no rule for when a custom popup can go. These criteria are ours, not Toast's. Retire your own popup only when every item below is marked passed from your Result lines:

• Direct routes: Toast's popup appeared on each route in your link map that opens a store page directly, on a fresh visit with no picker choice first.
• Picker routes: after a picker choice, no Toast popup appeared, as documented.
• Right store: each route opened the store its label, code or link was meant for, and a tester who doesn't work for you could tell which store it was.
• Usable controls: on the phones and browsers you tested, a guest could read the popup, confirm it and reach another store when they meant to. That bar is yours to set. Toast doesn't define it.
• No conflict with your popup: test 9 left nothing unresolved. You know which prompts appear on each route and in what order, and they don't contradict each other.
• Old links: each stale link from test 10 was fixed or replaced, or you recorded where it lands and accepted it. Toast documents nothing for these, so this item is your own standard.

A blank Result line, a test you didn't run, or behavior Toast doesn't document and you didn't see counts as not passed. Keep your own popup until it is resolved. Also weigh what you give up. Toast's popup skips guests who chose from the picker. If your own popup asks those guests too, removing it means a wrong tap on the picker gets no second confirmation, so make the picker names clear before you switch.

If you want to confirm that an order prints at the right store, schedule a real test order with that store's manager and handle it with your normal void or refund procedure. Testing a complete order before you sign off applies here too.

When an order still goes to the wrong store

The popup asks before the order. Toast's documentation for this setting says nothing about moving, cancelling or refunding an order that has already been placed at the wrong location. Handle those orders with your existing procedure and Toast's support resources, not with assumptions about this feature.

Use every wrong-store order to find the route that caused it. Have staff ask the guest one question: "How did you get to the ordering page?" A website button, a QR code or an old email points to a specific link you can fix. Keep a short log by route. Toast gives no figure for how much the popup helps, so that log is your only measure of whether it is working for you.

Who does what

• Owner: decides whether to turn the setting on and, using the retirement check, whether to retire any custom popup.
• Manager: keeps the link map current and runs the matrix after any change to stores, names, links or printed codes.
• Staff: when a guest says they ordered from the wrong store, asks how they reached the ordering page and passes the answer to the manager.

Sources and scope

Toast's announcement, Enable a location confirmation popup on your online ordering page (dated September 25, 2026, availability stated as of September 17, 2026), and its help article Customize Your Toast Online Ordering Page (last updated September 30, 2026), both read October 3, 2026. Toast product labels and menu paths are quoted from those pages and may change. Juniper Dumpling, its stores and addresses are fictional. No Toast account was used, no order was placed, and no measured reduction in wrong-location orders is claimed.