Inquiry Form or Online Store: Which One Fits Custom Orders?

Short answer: use an online store with a checkout when the item, price and lead time never change. Use an inquiry form when the price depends on the job or the date matters. It also fits when you can only take a few orders a week. (In the UK, sellers often say “enquiry form”.) With a checkout, the customer pays first and you find out later. With an inquiry form, you agree the details first, and then the customer pays.

Most advice on this question comes from companies that sell checkout software or form builders. So the answer is usually “you need our product”. This guide is for sellers who make things to order: cakes, clothes, jewelry, art, gifts and other custom work. It explains how each option works, what each one costs, and how to choose. It also shows how to set up an inquiry form that customers actually finish.

The difference in one table

Both options can live on the same kind of page. The customer sees your photos, your items and your prices. The difference is what happens when the customer is ready.

When an online store is the better fit

A checkout is the right tool when the customer does not need to talk to you. Three things make that true.

The item is the same every time. A dozen cookies, a ready-made bracelet or a printed card does not change from order to order. The customer can pick it and pay without any questions.

The price is fixed. If you can put one honest price on the page, the customer can pay it. Extra charges for options, such as a name on a cake topper, can still work. Many platforms let you add an option with its own price.

You can always make it in time. A checkout takes orders at any hour, so you need a lead time that holds even in your busiest week. If ten orders arrive on one Sunday night, can you still make them all by the date on the page? If yes, a checkout fits.

A checkout also suits customers who shop late at night and want to be finished in one visit. They do not want to wait for a reply.

When an inquiry form is the better fit

An inquiry form is the right tool when you need to say yes before you take the money. These are the usual signs.

The price depends on the job. A three-tier wedding cake, an altered dress or a portrait with two pets has no single price. You need the details first. Our guide on how to price custom orders covers how to work out the number.

You can only take so many orders. If you make everything yourself, a busy week has a hard limit. With an inquiry form, you see each request before you accept it. So you never sell more than you can make.

The date matters. Custom orders are often for a fixed day, such as a wedding, a birthday or a holiday. Orders also tend to come in close to that day. In WISMO’s own data, the median order is due 7 days after the seller creates it.

Median 7 days

A week is not much time. So before you take money, check that you can deliver on that date.

The details need a conversation. Sizes, colors, a reference photo and a message on the item often need one or two questions. A form collects the first version, and your reply fixes the rest.

Five questions to help you decide

Answer these for the work you sell most often.

1. Is the price the same for every customer? If yes, a checkout can work. If no, use an inquiry form.
2. Could you make every order that arrives in a busy week? If no, use an inquiry form, so you can say no or offer a later date.
3. Do customers often ask questions before they order? If yes, an inquiry form saves you from refunding orders you cannot make.
4. Do customers want to pay at night without waiting for you? If yes, a checkout keeps those sales.
5. Do you sell some standard items and some custom work? If yes, use both. Put the standard items in a checkout and the custom work behind an inquiry form.

If most of your answers point one way, choose that option. If they are split, the mix in question 5 is usually the answer.

What a checkout really costs

A checkout has two costs: the plan and the card fees. We checked these prices on October 23, 2026.

The plan. Shopify’s Basic plan costs $29 a month billed yearly, or $39 billed monthly. Shopify offers a short free trial first. Square has a free plan for its online store.

The card fees. Every card payment has a fee, with a checkout or without one. On Shopify Basic, online card payments through Shopify Payments cost 2.9% + 30¢. On Square’s free plan, online card payments and invoices cost 3.3% + 30¢. On Square’s paid plans the rate is 2.9% + 30¢.

So an inquiry form does not make card payments free. It only removes the monthly plan, and it lets you take the money after you agree.

The rules on shipping times. In the US, an FTC rule covers goods ordered online, by phone or by mail. It is called the Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule. You must have a reasonable basis for any shipping time you state. If you state no time, you must be able to ship within 30 days. The clock starts when you receive full or partial payment. If you cannot ship on time, you must offer the customer the choice to cancel for a full, prompt refund.

This matters for custom work. With a checkout, the clock starts the moment the customer pays, even if you have not read the order yet. With an inquiry form, nothing is paid until you accept, so you give the date when you say yes. This is general information, not legal advice. Our guide on what to tell a customer when an order is late covers the rule in more detail.

What an inquiry form really costs

An inquiry form has a cost too. The customer has to wait for you, and some customers will not wait.

You can make that cost small. Baymard Institute studies why shoppers leave a checkout. Leaving out shoppers who were only browsing, its list includes these reasons:

• 40% said extra costs were too high, such as shipping, tax and fees.
• 18% said the site wanted them to create an account.
• 12% said they could not see or work out the total cost up front.

These come from checkouts, not inquiry forms. But the same problems push customers away from a form. So show a starting price and say what extra costs there may be. Never ask the customer to make an account. Our comparison of free order form tools shows which ones add up a total and need no account.

The other cost is your time. Every request needs a reply, and some will not turn into orders. Do you get many requests for things you do not make? Then your page needs to say more clearly what you do make.

How to set up an inquiry form that works

A good inquiry form is short, honest and fast. Follow these steps. If you build yours in Google Forms, our guide to using Google Forms for orders shows each setting.

1. Show what you make, with photos and starting prices. “From $85” is enough. A price range answers the first question before the customer asks it.
2. Ask only for what you need to quote. Usually that is the item, the quantity, the date needed and the details. Add a name and a phone number or email. Add a space for a reference photo if your work needs one.
3. Ask for the date, and do not choose one for the customer. The date needed tells you at once whether you can say yes.
4. Say what happens next. Tell the customer that this is a request, not an order, and that no money is taken yet. Say when you will reply.
5. Reply quickly, and confirm in writing. Your reply gives the final price, the deposit, the balance, the due date and how to pay.
6. Take a deposit before you start. Our guide on how much deposit to take for custom orders covers how much to ask for. In WISMO’s data, the median first deposit is 50% of the order price, across 91 orders from 30 sellers.
7. Turn the accepted request into an order. Put it in the same list as every other order, with its due date and what is still owed.

Here is a reply you can copy and change.

And here is one for when you cannot take the order.

The middle path: use both

You do not have to choose only one. Many sellers use a checkout for standard items and an inquiry form for custom work.

Some platforms help with the space in between. Etsy lets sellers add up to five custom option fields to a listing. These can capture text, options and file uploads before the buyer pays. On Shopify, you can build a draft order for a customer yourself. It can include custom items that are not in your catalog. You then send an invoice, and by default it has a link to a checkout.

That gives you a simple flow for custom work. The customer sends a request, you agree the details, and then you send a payment link.

How WISMO does this

WISMO’s store page is an inquiry page, not a checkout. It is free on every plan. Your page lives at an address like yourshop.wismo.live. Customers see your items with photos, descriptions and prices, or “price on request”. They pick what they want and send you a request. WISMO calls it an enquiry.

The enquiry arrives in the app. You can call the customer or message them on WhatsApp first, then accept or decline. When you accept, you set the due date yourself. The enquiry then becomes a normal order with a tracking link for the customer. You can pause new enquiries without taking the page down, for example when you are on holiday.

There is no cart checkout, and WISMO takes no payments. You take the deposit and the balance the way you already do. Then you record each payment on the order, so you always know what is still owed.

Your first 30 orders are free, and an accepted enquiry counts as an order. Pro costs $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year, and the yearly plan saves over 15%. Pro gives you unlimited orders and removes the “Powered by WISMO” line from your store page and tracking pages. You can try Pro free for 7 days.

If you also want customers to pay without talking to you, keep a checkout for your standard items. WISMO is not a replacement for that. Not sure you need a page at all? Read what a store page needs to show up on Google first.

The short version

Choose a checkout when the item, the price and the lead time never change. Choose an inquiry form when you need to say yes before you take the money. If you sell both kinds of work, use both.

Whichever you choose, the work after the order is the same. You need one list of orders with a due date for each. You also need a record of payments and a way to keep the customer updated. Our made-to-order business guide covers that part.