What your customers see

Every other Commerce page is about your side of the counter. This one walks the buyer’s side, so you know what they are looking at when they call.

The shop and the product page

Your shop lists what you sell, with a picture, a name, a price and a button on each card. Each product has a page of its own. The Shop page and blocks covers both.

On a product page, short notes show under the price when they apply:

• “Pre-order”, with the date it ships around
• “Backordered, ships when restocked”
• the turnaround, such as “Ships in 5 business days”
• “Digital download.”, on a product with a file
• the stock count, such as “Only 3 left”

A sold out or coming soon product shows a Notify me button instead of a buy button. The shopper signs in, and gets an email when it is back.

The cart

Adding anything makes a Cart button appear at the bottom of the screen, with a count.

Click it and a panel slides in, titled Your cart. It lists each line, with buttons to add one, take one away, or Remove it. The total sits at the bottom, above a checkout button.

The cart lives in the buyer’s own browser. It is not on your website, and you cannot see it. Close the tab and it survives. Use a different computer and it does not.

Checkout

Checkout is one page, on your own web address. The heading reads Checkout. On one side is what they are buying. On the other is a form, top to bottom:

1. Discount or referral code, with an Apply button. One code per order.
2. Contact: Email and Full name. A signed-in buyer sees “Signed in as” and their email instead.
3. Remember my details on this device for 7 days. Off unless they check it.
4. Billing address.
5. Delivery, when something ships. Ship it to me, or Pick it up in store when you offer pickup.
6. Ship to a different address, if it does not go to the billing address.
7. Shipping method: the rates they can pick from.
8. Insure this shipment, when you offer insurance.
9. A checkbox to agree to your terms and conditions.
10. Apple Pay, Google Pay or Link buttons, where their device has them, then Or pay by card and the card form.
11. The Pay button, with the total on it.

The card form comes from Stripe, but it sits inside your page. The buyer never feels handed off. The total updates as they type, and they are never charged a total they did not see.

A signed-in buyer can pick a saved address, and save a new one with Save this address to my account.

When address checks are on, a wrong-looking address shows “Did you mean:” with Use this and Keep what I typed. See Shipping.

A pickup asks for no address. It offers Phone (optional), so you can reach them about the pickup.

A business buyer may see Ship on my own carrier account. See Shipping.

When checkout cannot start

Nothing selected means they reached checkout with an empty cart.

Checkout isn’t set up yet means the thing has no price, or your Stripe keys are missing. See Connect Stripe.

Checkout turns away a billing address outside the countries you sell to. See Commerce settings.

How checkout ends

After paying, the buyer lands on a page on your website. It says one of these things.

What it says	What it means for you
Thank you, your order is confirmed	Paid. The order is in Orders. Get on with it.
Thank you, your subscription is starting	A free trial began. Nothing is charged today.
Payment received: it’s still clearing	Their bank is slow. Nothing to do. It lands on its own.
That payment didn’t finish	Nothing was charged. There is no order.
We couldn’t find that order	The link was broken or old. Ask them for their receipt email.

Every buyer gets an account

Every paid order makes an account on your website, from the email the buyer paid with. There is no separate “guest” checkout.

For a first-time buyer, the thank-you page says “We’ve set up an account for you.” To see the order there, they confirm their email first, with a sign-in link.

A buyer who already had an account is told to sign in with their email address to see the order.

That stops a stranger who typed someone else’s email from getting into their account.

The account page

A customer manages their own things at your web address followed by /account.

Signing in

There is no password. They type their address and click Email me a link. The link signs them in.

The reply is always the same: “Check your inbox for a sign-in link. It works once and expires in 15 minutes.” It says that whatever they type.

That is on purpose. A different reply for an unknown address would let a stranger work out who your customers are.

Making an account without buying

Under the sign-in form is a link: Create an account. It opens a page headed Create your account. They type their email, and a name and phone if they like. Then they click Email me a link.

Nothing is made until they click the link in that email.

Confirming their email

A buyer whose account was made at checkout has not proved their email yet. Until they do, the page shows a note and an Email me a sign-in link button. Some tabs are hidden, and any change asks them to confirm first.

One click on the emailed link fixes it.

The tabs

The page is headed Your account, with their email under it. Sign out is at the top right.

Tab	What is on it
Account info	Their details, addresses, codes and credits.
Subscriptions	Their plans, the card they pay with, and their invoices.
Orders	What they have bought, with files, tracking and reviews.
Forms	Forms they have sent you. Only with the Feedback add-on.
Settings	The newsletter, and closing their account.

Account info

Your details is a form: Name, Phone, the address, City, State / region, Postal code and Country code. Save details stores it. You see the same details on their customer record.

Saved addresses holds up to 10 delivery addresses. Add an address, Edit, Make default and Remove look after them.

Carrier accounts holds up to 5 UPS or FedEx accounts, for buyers who ship on their own account. Only the last few digits ever show.

Your referral code shows their code, a link to share, and a Copy link button. Under it, Your referrals lists how many people used it, with a date, a status and what they earned. It never shows who. See Customers, credits and referrals.

Your affiliate code shows only for an affiliate. See Affiliates.

Plan Credits and Project Credits each show a balance and every change, with the note you wrote. Write those notes for them to read.

On a site with the Bookings add-on, their bookings show here too. See Bookings.

Subscriptions

Subscriptions lists any plan they pay for, its price, and when it renews. Change plan switches plan or billing period.

Cancel subscription does not cut them off. They keep what they paid for until the period ends. Keep my subscription undoes it any time before then.

You can do the same from your side. See Subscriptions.

Payment method names the card on file, such as “Visa ending in 4242”. Its Update card button swaps it. With no card saved, the button reads Add a card. The card is held by Stripe, never by your website.

Invoices lists their invoices, with links. Those open on Stripe’s website, in a new tab. That is normal.

Orders

Order history lists what they have bought. It includes orders they placed before they had an account, as long as they used the same email address.

Each order shows its stage, its lines and its totals. Depending on the order, it can also show:

• Track your package, once it has shipped
• the pickup place and its hours
• the proof, with a link to answer it. See Orders.
• their own uploaded files, with Replace and Add a file until they approve the proof
• Download and the file name, for a file they bought. See Digital products.
• Refunds, with the date and the bank’s reference number
• Your note, the note they left at checkout
• Write a review or Edit your review, once it has arrived and reviews are on
• Reorder, which puts the same order back in their cart at today’s prices

Your reviews lists the reviews they have written.

Files they uploaded are kept for 180 days after the order ships. The page tells them, and suggests they keep a copy.

Settings

Newsletter lets them sign up for your newsletter. It only shows when your website has a newsletter set up. See Newsletter.

Close your account lets them close it themselves. They check I understand this cannot be undone. and click Close my account.

Closing signs them out everywhere. Their account record is deleted after a set number of days. Their orders stay in your records, because you need those for your books. See Accounts.

Why they cannot change their email

The form has no email box. The address is who they are. It is what the sign-in link proved.

So a change goes through you. You can do it on their customer record. See Customers.

When a customer writes to you

Most of what they ask for, you can do in a minute.

They ask for	Where you do it
A refund	The Orders tab. See Orders.
A wrong address fixed on an order	The order’s Customer card, Edit. See Orders.
A credit granted, or one used up	The Customers tab. See Customers, credits and referrals.
Their email address changed	The Customers tab, Edit. See Customers.
Their plan paused or canceled	The Subscriptions tab, or they do it themselves. See Subscriptions.
A card updated	Nowhere. They do it themselves, under Payment method.
Their account closed	Plugins, then Accounts, or they do it themselves. See Accounts.

Point them at their own account page for anything they can do themselves. Tell them to go to your web address, add /account, and ask for a sign-in link.