Configure Checkout settings

Intro

New Checkout (released on 10th November 2022) combines the power of Guest checkout and Accounts, along with giving full flexibility to the Store Owner to tailor-make the user journey for placing an order.

We will see below all the options and their reflection on the checkout. This should help you understand all the features and functionality of Checkout, and you can then configure the settings as suitable for your store.

 

1. User's main contact information

In Admin, go to Settings > Configuration, and scroll down to the "Checkout" card.

The first thing that you will see is to select what should be the primary contact detail allowed to checkout for the users.

 

Let's understand how these primary contact information help you provide a better experience

As you can see, there are three ways to configure this

1. Email
2. Phone
3. Either (Phone or Email)

This option is given for the Store Owners to choose what works best in their industry or for their store to verify and later communicate with the user.

For example, In some industries, Email is prevalent as the audience is active on email and doesn't want to share their phone number, in such cases option 1) Email would be a better option. This also allows email marketing for retargeting the same users.

Some industries cater to users that are not tech/email savvy, in such cases option 2) Phone would be a better option.

In the case of a mixed audience, option 3) Either (phone or Email) would be a good option to let the customer decide what is convenient for them.

For additional safety and to reduce fake orders, we have also given the option for OTP verification (right now limited to Indian phone numbers, emails can be from any country) that stops anyone with malicious intentions to place an order with fake details. You can keep it on/off as per your convenience and experience with incoming orders.

 

2. Account: User has to signup or can checkout as a guest

The second section in Checkout is to configure if the user has to signup or can checkout as a guest or has the flexibility to choose between signup and guest checkout.

Let's understand how account configuration can help speed up customer onboarding and checkout

As you can see above, the Account configuration allows the store owners to create a flexible onboarding flow while having complete control over the user journey.

Let's understand the options one by one,

1) Account is Mandatory
2) Account is Optional
3) Account will not be provided

The "Account is Mandatory" setting gives the users only one option to checkout, that is they have to signup or log in (if they have already signed up earlier) to proceed with placing the order. The "Account is mandatory" is an important option for industries or stores that want to be sure they only cater to profiles that are verified and serious buyers, by adding friction to checkout by creating an account.

The "Account is Optional" setting gives the flexibility to the users to choose between signing up or checkout as a guest. This option is the most widely used option considering this gives the user choice between if they want to leave their personal details as an account, or want temporarily checkout also reducing the number of steps to place the order. Considering there are two options to checkout, returning users might not remember if they had created an account or have checked out as a guest, so there is an option to allow the user to login via OTP and not stress about remembering the password. As a store owner, you can also decide the preferred default mode of checkout, Signup, or Guest, creating the checkout flow even more seamless by default for your users.

The "Account will not be provided" setting gives only one option to checkout, that is they can only checkout as a guest. Even if the same user has purchased earlier, they will still be checking out as a guest in their 2nd or later orders. This option is popular as the most frictionless and high revenue-generating option that optimizes conversion rates. The downside of this option is, you might get a lot of fake orders. But we have made sure we give you the flexibility to switch on the OTP required in section 1 as explained in this tutorial earlier.
 

3. Other user information fields

Now you have asked for primary information and allowed the user to checkout as a guest or sign up. But for communication, marketing, or for any requirement you need a few more details from the customer placing the order, for that we have these other fields to show or hide or make it mandatory or optional for the user to fill out while placing the order.

Let's understand how other fields can help you get more user's information

As you can see above, whether you are allowing the user to checkout as a guest or create an account by signing up, you have complete flexibility to ask for any user's information that might help you with further communication and processing the order.

Two main things to understand here

1) Show Field
2) Mandatory

"Show field" checked means this field will be shown to the user in the Signup and Guest Checkout forms.

"Mandatory" checked means this field will be mandatory to fill for the user to proceed with the form submission.

In case of "Show field" checked "Mandatory" unchecked, the field will be shown but will not be mandatory to fill, the user can proceed with form submission without giving that information.