This article will answer FAQs about checkout steps.
- Is my checkout secure? How can I add SSL certificate to it?
- My customers see pre-defined values in checkout fields. Why?
- Will my customers see the countries I don't ship to at checkout?
- Why the checkout button is missing in my store?
- I don't want to process orders online. I just want my customers pick up some products and then I get a notification about their selection. Is it possible?
- What if order total is zero? Can a customer skip payment methods selection in this case?
- I don't want to ask for billing address at checkout. Can I disable it?
Is my checkout secure? How can I add SSL certificate to it?
When you use Online store, all sensitive information is transmitted via HTTPS secure protocol during checkout. So you don't need to install SSL certificate or change anything, your checkout is already secure.
My customers see pre-defined values in checkout fields. Why?
When a customer goes to checkout, Online store determines his/her country,city and zip code based on the IP address (we use MaxMind's GeoIP solution). These found values are automatically shown at checkout. Why it is a great feature:
- In most cases, it helps the customer to check out faster(= more sales for you).
- Your customers see estimated shipping and tax cost as soon as they open the cart page.
If you get incorrect pre-defined values, it means that the MaxMind databases don't have the correct value for your IP. In this case, please open this URL: www.maxmind.com/en/locate_my_ip If you see the correct values on that page, it means that the problem is already fixed in the newest MaxMind database and it will be fixed in the next updates (we update our geo-ip databases monthly).
If you see incorrect values on that page, then please send a correction and MaxMind will fix the problem.
Will the customers see the countries I don't ship to at checkout?
Online store hides countries and states that you don’t ship to from the drop-down list at Shipping details page at checkout, meaning that your customers only see the available shipping destinations.
If you only ship within one country, the country drop-down will not appear at all – instead, your customers will see a message saying your store ships within that country. The same is true for the states/regions.
So, as long as you have shipping options and destination zones set up in your store settings, Online store will take care of displaying the right selection of countries/states at checkout.
Also, system detects the customer location by their IP address even before they go to checkout, which makes your store checkout smart – it knows the customer location and shipping cost even before the customers go to checkout. When they do, they see the clean and straightforward checkout form that doesn’t distract the customers with unnecessary lists of countries and states you don’t ship to.
Why the checkout button is missed in my store?
If all payment methods are disabled in your store, then Online store doesn’t show the “Checkout” button. So in order to enable the button, please log in to your control panel, open the Settings → Payment page and enable at least one payment method. Please also refer to this article for the information on how to set up payment methods in your store: Payment options
I don't want to process orders online. I just want my customers pick up some products and then I get a notification about their selection. Is it possible?
Yes, it is possible. How to implement this:
- Disable all payment methods except for the "Phone ordering" one.
- Rename it to "Place order" for example. You can rename it by clicking its name.
- Make sure that all your products do not have weight assigned. In this case Online store will omit the "Shipping details" checkout step.
- Modify your mail notifications or disable them.
What if order total is zero? Can a customer skip payment methods selection in this case?
It is a common practice to offer a free promotional product to attract customers, especially if you sell intangible goods, such as music, books, etc. In order to make such promotions more efficient and convenient for you and your customers, you can use the "Skip payment method selection, if the order total is zero" option. This can be enabled on the Settings → General → Cart & Checkout page, Checkout Settings section. If this option is enabled and the order total is zero, Online store will skip the payment method selection, so a customer doesn’t need to think what payment method s/he should select to place a free order.
Additionally, you can configure your store so that it will automatically set such orders to either "Accepted" or "Queued" status. What is it for? If a free order needs some manual verification before shipping (or sending download links of your promotional files), then it would be convenient to initially assign the 'Queued' status to such orders - you'll be able to check an order and switch it to 'Accepted' or 'Declined' status manually. On the other hand, if no verification is needed, let system automatically switch the status to 'Accepted' for the free orders. In this case, it will send the download links of your free promotional files automatically. In order to configure it, please choose the initial status you want in the 'Set order status to' selector next to the "Skip payment method selection, if the order total is zero" option in your control panel.
If the 'Skip payment method selection, if the order total is zero' option is disabled in your store, then your customers will be asked to select a payment method at checkout regardless of whether their order total is zero or not. Then, if they select an offline payment method, an order will be placed with "Awaiting Payment" status as usually. On the other hand, If an on-line payment method is used for a free order, the customer will most likely see an error because most of the online payment gateways don’t allow orders with zero total.
I don't want to ask for billing address at checkout. Can I disable it?
Yes, it's possible to disable billing address at checkout so that your customer will not need to enter it. To do so, just disable the corresponding option in your control panel at Settings → General → Cart & Checkout → Checkout Settings → Ask for a billing address during checkout