The checkout and its steps
The checkout is a content element. It consists of four parts – Address, Shipping, Payment, Review – which you spread over 1 to 4 steps.
Setting it up
Put the Checkout element on a page and choose that page on the start point as the Checkout page. On the element, Number of steps sets the split:
| 1 | everything on one page |
|---|---|
| 2 | address, shipping and payment – then the review |
| 3 | address – then shipping and payment – then the review (default) |
| 4 | each part on a page of its own |
From two steps on, the review with the buy button always stands alone. Which shipping and payment method is preselected follows from their order in the shop configuration: the top one available.
Earlier steps are links, so the customer can go back to the address or shipping step without the browser's back button. Later steps stay plain text.
Address
The customer enters a billing address; “Use a different delivery address” adds a delivery address. Last name, street, postcode, city and e-mail are mandatory. This is also where the VAT ID field is.
Buy button and legal texts
In the shop configuration, in the “Checkout” section, you choose the Buy button label: “Order with an obligation to pay” or “Order subject to charge”. Consho deliberately does not offer a plain “Buy”.
Above the button there are links to the terms, the withdrawal instructions, the warranty and the privacy policy. With Require a terms tick box, the customer must also confirm that they have read the terms. There is deliberately no privacy tick box.
Frozen at the purchase
At the purchase, Consho stores the terms chosen and the withdrawal instructions with a checksum on the order. If anything changes between the review and the purchase – lines, amounts, legal texts, a member's address – nothing is ordered, and the customer sees: “Something about your order has changed in the meantime. Please check the details and confirm again.”
After the purchase
The customer lands on the Order page of their order and gets the confirmation mail: with the terms and the withdrawal instructions as frozen, and the warranty notice attached.
When the checkout is blocked
If something essential is missing – checkout, basket or order page, shipping or payment method, mail delivery, legal texts, invoice sender, number ranges – Consho blocks the checkout. The customer only sees “Ordering is not possible at the moment. Please try again later.”; the reasons are on the setup page in the back end.