ProductCart allows the store administrator to use a variety of custom checkout options to add information to the order details. The Checkout Options page is divided into different sections, which you find listed in the Table of Contents for this page.
You have the ability to ask a customer to fill out a “Referrer” field when checking out or registering on the store for the first time. This can help you determine where your customers are coming from. Of course, you may also use this field for other purposes. ProductCart can generate sales reports based on this option (e.g. show me all sales referred by Google in the last 30 days).
The referrer field has the following characteristics:
To add entries to the drop-down menu, enter a description in the Available Selections field, and click on the Add New button. The page will refresh and the new menu item will be listed.
After adding the menu items that you would like to display, you can set the order in which they appear in the drop-down menu by entering an order number in the appropriate field. Click on the Update Order button to confirm the new order setting.
If you no longer wish to show a certain entry in the drop-down, it is recommended that you render it inactive rather than deleting it. This way you can still obtain reports based on that entry.
You can ask your customers to agree to your “Terms & Conditions” before they can checkout. They are asked to do so when placing the first order (or registering with the store), and not again (a cookie is saved to the customer’s computer).
When shown, this field is always required. The text of the agreement is shown through a scrollable, read-only text area. A check-box allows customers to agree to the terms.
ProductCart includes a Newsletter Wizard that allows you to send select customers email messages about offers, new products, etc. We strongly discourage you to use this feature as a “spam” tool (spamming is also illegal in many states & countries). The Newsletter Settings allow you to have customers opt in to receive messages from you (e.g. product updates, offers, etc.). Newsletters and other messages should not be sent to customers that did not opt to receive them. The Newsletter Settings are as follows:
You can ask customers to specify a date & time to be associated with an order. This is especially useful for stores that sell products or services that must be delivered at a specific time (e.g. catering business). A pop-up calendar makes it easy for customers to select a date.
Both for the date and time fields you can set whether or not either field should be shown, and whether they should be required. You can also enforce an order delivery date & time that is at least 24 hours in the future.
To ensure that dates are entered in the correct format, the Date input field is a read-only field. Customers will use the pop-up calendar to select a date.
Associated with this feature is the ability to set dates for which the order cannot be delivered (or the service cannot be provided). In ProductCart, these are referred to as Blackout Dates. You can set Blackout Dates by selecting Settings > Manage Blackout Dates. For example, a catering company may not provide its services on certain holidays. Therefore, customers should not be able to select those dates when placing an order.
When customers checkout on a store that is using this feature, a link next to the Delivery Date field allows customers to see a list of blackout dates. The information is shown in a separate window.
If a customer selects a delivery date without realizing that it is a blackout date, a message is shown and the customer is prompted to select another date. Customers will not be able to checkout unless they choose an acceptable date.
ProductCart features an option to limit the store’s delivery area by postal code. When this feature is enabled, customers will only have the option of shipping/delivering items to a list of accepted postal codes.
This feature works well for stores whose services are only available to customers located in a specific geographic area. For example, an online grocery store may only accept orders that are shipped within a specific urban area.
The feature affects all orders and cannot be associated with a particular product or a particular shipping option. Note that the feature will not affect the ability for customers to register with the store, but rather only their ability to place an order. In other words, the billing address is not geographically limited, only the shipping address is. If the shipping and billing address are the same and the billing address falls outside of the delivery area, the customer will be required to provide a separate shipping address.
ProductCart saves the Customer's IP address during checkout. You can alert customers that you are saving their IP address by showing them a corresponding message at the top of the payment page. Some online stores like to do so in an effort to reduce fraudulent orders by showing a commitment to try to track down or report illegal activity to the authorities.
In the United States, you can report Internet crime (e.g. a fraudulent transaction on your store where somebody clearly stole someone else’s identity and placed an order using that person’s credit card) using this Web site http://www.ic3.gov/