Pre-Orders, At-Event Sales & the Pickup Clock

Every Shop order is collected in person — but when the pickup countdown starts depends on when the attendee bought:

Pre-orders (bought before the event starts) have no pickup clock yet. The item is simply held for the buyer, who collects it at the merch table during the event. Their order screen reads "Pick up at the merch table during the event."

At-event purchases (bought once the event has started) start a pickup clock immediately. The buyer sees a live countdown — "Pick up within 23h 45m" — and needs to collect before it runs out.

In Settings, choose a Pickup Clock of 12, 24 (the default), or 48 hours. This is the window an at-event buyer has to collect their order before it becomes eligible for forfeiture.

You'll also see a Merch Window (optional Opens/Closes times) you can use to bound when the shop is collectible, and a Forfeit Policy Text box — the message attendees see on their order about what happens if they don't pick up.

If an at-event order isn't collected before its pickup window closes, Gythr automatically marks it Forfeited and returns the items to your available stock so someone else can buy them. This runs on its own in the background — you don't have to do anything.

A few things to know:

• The order isn't deleted — it stays as a "Forfeited" record for your books.
• No automatic refund is issued (this is the standard policy, and it's why the forfeit text exists). You can always override and refund a forfeited order manually.
• Buyers get a reminder roughly an hour before their window closes, to cut down on no-shows.

Whatever you write in Forfeit Policy Text is shown to attendees on their order, so set expectations plainly. The default reads: "Uncollected items will be forfeited after the pickup window expires." Tailor it to your event — for example, note your merch table hours or a grace period if you offer one.