Getting started 📚

Last modified: 26 December 2024 5 min read

A friendly guide to help our retail partners get started with introducing Pendoo to their brick-and-mortar stores. The real new era of retail awaits, so let's get going 🚀

🔬What's Pendoo?

💡
Ad valorem 🎩

In Latin? Well, pendo relates to the concept of value. And Pendoo? Think of it as value added, or value+, if you will. We have added an extra O, you see...

On the face of it, Pendoo is a scan-and-go technology. It allows retail consumers to use their mobile device to scan product barcodes, add them to their digital basket and ultimately check-out. All on their device.

Pendoo is distributed as a web-application. From a consumer-perspective, this means that we eliminate the need for a native application download, such as an iOS or Android application. While we appreciate a big part of the consumer audience have grown to like native applications, in this instance we feel that the saying there's a time and a place is quite fitting. Our priorities are such that a download requirement would hinder our barrier-less setup.

Ultimately, we aim at making it as easy as possible for retail customers to complete a checkout as quickly and painlessly as possible. All the while, retail staff are reallocated onto shop-floor-critical tasks — assisting and actually selling to customers, instead of being stuck behind a screen.

Let's re-think retail. Let's re-build it around a key pillar: human interaction. Let's promote human ingenuity and let's not confine our retail staff behind a screen — portable or not.

🎪
Plug-and-Play

Pendoo integrates seamlessly with Shopify in the form of a custom app. As a true plug-and-play solution, integrating Pendoo takes less than 5 minutes and requires no additional work. We are currently working on introducing stable integrations with other popular platforms such as Lightspeed and Squarespace.


📨Feedback and support

Please report any issues, usability improvements, or feature requests to our sales and development teams.

You can also always email us at info@pendoo.io.


Installation 📦

Last modified: 11 January 2025 8 min read

Get Pendoo up and running in your store in under 5 minutes. No developer needed. No hardware required.

🚧
Prerequisite

To install the app, a Shopify account with an active Shopify shop is required. You must either be the shop owner or have the appropriate permissions to carry out the installation.

1
Create your merchant account
Head to pendoo.io and sign up for free. Every account starts with a 30-day Enterprise trial — no credit card required.
2
Connect your Shopify shop
Log in, go to your dashboard, and enter your Shopify domain. The connection takes up to 3 minutes to establish a secure 2-way channel.
3
Install the Shopify app
Once connected, click Install app from your dashboard. Shopify will prompt you to approve access scopes for products, customers, orders, locations and fulfillments.
4
Place your QR codes
Find your store's QR code(s) in your Pendoo dashboard. Print and place them strategically — at the entrance, per product section, or wherever your customers reach for their phones.

👩‍🌾Merchant account

First things first — go ahead and create your merchant account. Every plan starts with a free 30-day Enterprise trial. No credit card required.


🔌Shop connection

🚧
Prerequisite

A Pendoo merchant account is required prior to connecting your shop.

Log into your account and head to your dashboard. Enter your domain and click Connect. Establishing a connection can take up to 3 minutes to complete.

📝
About the initial connection

The initial connection sets up a 2-way communication channel used exclusively between you, the retailer, and us, the sales channel. This channel is created on a per-retailer basis to ensure data security and integrity.

🌐
Domain format

The domain can be your custom Shopify domain (e.g. my-store.com) or your permanent Shopify address (e.g. my-store.myshopify.com).


🏗App installation

🚧
Prerequisite

An initial shop connection is required prior to installing the app.

If the connection has been made successfully, your dashboard's Connected shop card will be updated. Click Install app — this is where the magic starts.

🔐
Access scopes — what does Pendoo need?

To process orders and route them to the correct location, Pendoo requires access scopes around products, customers, orders, locations and fulfillments. These are explicitly requested during installation. Questions? info@pendoo.io.


👾QR Code placement

Your customers scan a QR code to launch the Pendoo web-app. You'll find your store's QR code(s) in your Pendoo dashboard.

Strategic placement is key. Depending on your store layout, this could be a single large QR code at the entrance, one per product section, or at every checkout point. The goal is frictionless access — your customers should never have to search for where to pay.

After all, we are trying to make things easier, not complicate them 😌


Features ✨

Last modified: 16 March 2025 12 min read

We've worked with retailers across markets with widely different needs. Below are the features that emerged from listening to them — built to streamline operations without adding overhead.

📝
We handle the admin

Introducing new software almost always creates overhead. Let us take care of the admin while your customers shop. Below are the key features that keep things running without you worrying about a thing.

💳
Payment methods

Every market has different popular payment methods. Beyond Apple Pay and Google Pay, maybe you want to accept instalments via Klarna? Or MobilePay for Denmark and Finland? We strive to be flexible regardless of geography.

Default methods include Apple Pay and Google Pay. Missing a method? Let us know at info@pendoo.io.

🌍
Localisation

Regardless of how prominent the English language is, localisation has been proven to increase customer satisfaction and revenue. As Pendoo enters new markets, we work closely with our retail partners on localising the checkout experience.

After all, Pendoo er utrolig!

🦸‍♀️
Customer record

Upon a successful transaction, a customer record is created or updated in your Shopify admin. The user's email is used for a look-up — if a record is found, the order is appended to their history. Otherwise, a new record is created.

⚠️ Pro plan required
📍
Location-aware sales

Running a Shopify shop with multiple locations? We don't just blindly fulfill orders — we route each order to the location where the sale took place, update the fulfillment order's assigned location, and fulfill it accordingly.

Your reports have never looked neater 🧹

⚠️ Pro plan required
🎭
Branding

Set your brand elements — starting with your logo — to determine how the Pendoo checkout appears to your customers. You can even use your own domain as a Pendoo subdomain, making it clear that mobile self-checkout is an extension of your brand's shopping experience.

⚠️ Pro plan required
Customer reviews

Collect customer reviews at checkout. Gather invaluable feedback with a non-intrusive review form. Decide whether you'd like Pendoo to follow up with customers whose reviews are less than excellent — or engage with them yourself, directly.

A disappointed customer presents you with an opportunity to win them over. We give you all the tools to do just that — turning disappointment into brand loyalty.

⚠️ Pro plan required
Checkout fields

Fuel your checkout how you see fit. Control the fields you collect during checkout — an order tag, a referral field, a discount code. Tie checkout fields to specific locations for targeted offers at newly opened sites.

⚠️ Pro plan required
🚦
Product enablement

Product enablement gives you precise control over which products customers can purchase through Pendoo's mobile checkout. Curate your catalog, tailor availability to inventory or promotions, and adapt quickly to market shifts in real time.

⚠️ Pro plan required
🔒
Anti-theft

Pendoo collaborates with leading anti-theft solution providers, including Nedap, to ensure robust protection for retail partners. Using RFID or magnetic tags? We're interested to hear your approach and ready to devise a secure plan. Get in touch.

⚠️ Pro plan required

Feeling extra? 🤸

Last modified: 30 October 2024 4 min read

Bonus details, barcode formats, and known limitations — for when you want to know everything.

🔍Barcode support

Depending on the legal realm within which your store locations operate, your products' Universal Product Codes (UPCs) or European Article Numbers (EANs) will need to comply with the relevant standards.

Typically, UPCs are used in retail settings across the United States and Canada. EANs are the European equivalent. If your barcode format isn't listed below, get in touch at info@pendoo.io.

UPC-A
The standard 12-digit barcode used across the US and Canada.
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UPC-E
A compressed 8-digit version of UPC-A — shortened form.
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EAN-13
The standard 13-digit European Article Number.
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EAN-8
A compact 8-digit version of EAN-13 — shortened form.
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🚫Limitations

🔧
Shopify app not yet embedded
Today, the Shopify app is not embedded to the Shopify admin. Therefore, management of your Pendoo account should be done via our website. We are working on providing the account dashboard as an embedded feature of our app.