Checkout Process

Checkout is the final stage of the ordering process. By the time a customer reaches checkout, they have already added their desired items to the shopping cart. Generally, checkout includes the following steps:

•	Enter information about the customer.

•	Enter information about the payer. The payer and the customer don't have to be the same person.

•	Enter information about the recipient.

•	Select a payment method.

•	Select a shipping method.

•	Review all entered information and revise if necessary.

•	Confirm order placement.

•	Complete the payment for the order.

The customer, the payer and the recipient specified during order placement can be different entities. For example, the customer, John Doe, can pay for an order with the credit card of his employer and then specify the shipping address as that of his contractor located in another city.

With Avactis Shopping Cart software you can customize the design of all of the checkout steps. If you want, you can also remove certain steps from the process.

The checkout process is customized through templates. All checkout templates are stored in the folder:

avactis-templates/checkout/checkout-sequence/default/

To display checkout steps on any given website page, use the tag <?php Checkout(); ?>.

The checkout sequence in Avactis Shopping Cart includes the following three steps:

Step 1. The customer fills in Customer Info, Shipping Info, and Billing Info and then selects a payment method and a shipping method. The template responsible for this step is provided in the file "step1.tpl.html".

Step 2. The customer reviews the information entered in Step 1 and confirms that is it correct. After clicking Place Order, the customer is redirected to the payment gateway. The template responsible for this step is provided in the file "step2-confirmation.tpl.html".

Step 3. Provided the payment was completed successfully at the payment gateway, the customer is redirected to the third checkout step. The template responsible for this step is provided in the file "step3-success.tpl.html". The checkout sequence flowchart is shown below.

Further details are given below about the templates and tags used to create the checkout design.

Step 1. Customization step1.tpl.html

Step 1 of the checkout process entails entering the information required to generate an order.

The template for Step 1 is provided in the file step1.tpl.html, which is stored in the folder avactis-templates/checkout/checkout-sequence/default/.

The following tags are used to generate Step 1:

•	<?php CheckoutOrder(); ?> - displays the items ordered, including the order total as well as shipping cost and taxes.

•	<?php CheckoutCustomerInfoInput(); ?> - the form for filling in customer information.

•	<?php CheckoutShippingInfoInput(); ?> - the form for filling in Shipping Info.

•	<?php CheckoutBillingInfoInput(); ?> - the form for filling in Billing Info.

•	<?php CheckoutShippingMethodsSelect(); ?> - the form for selecting a shipping method.

•	<?php CheckoutPaymentMethodsSelect(); ?> - the form for selecting a payment method.

NOTE: The templates and descriptions of the above tags are explained in their respective sections below. You can change the sequence in which the forms are displayed by rearranging the appropriate tags into a different sequence.

In the template step1.tpl.html you can can define border color and border width of the form, and place titles as necessary. You can also move the tags to different parts of the template to change their location.

Step 2. Customization step2-confirmation.tpl.html

Step 2 of the checkout process is used to display the information entered in Step 1, which is required for generating an order. In this step the customer can review the entered data and go back to Step 1 to make any changes necessary.

The template for Step 2 is provided in the file step2-confirmation.tpl.html, which is stored in the folder avactis-templates/checkout/checkout-sequence/default/.

The following tags are used to generate Step 2:

•	<?php CheckoutOrder(); ?> - displays the items ordered, including the order total as well as shipping cost and taxes.

•	<?php CheckoutCustomerInfoOutput(); ?> - displays the data entered in the Customer Info form.

•	<?php CheckoutShippingInfoOutput(); ?> - displays the data entered in the Shipping Info form.

•	<?php CheckoutBillingInfoOutput(); ?> - displays the data entered in the Billing Info form.

•	<?php CheckoutShippingMethodsOutput(); ?> - displays the name of the selected shipping method.

•	<?php CheckoutPaymentMethodsOutput(); ?> - displays the name of the selected payment method.

In the template step2-confirmation.tpl.html you can define border color and border width of the form, and place titles as necessary. You can also move the tags to different parts of the template to change their location.

Step 3. Customization step3-success.tpl.html

The customer reaches Step 3 after they have successfully completed the checkout process.

The template for Step 3 is provided in the file step3-success.tpl.html, which is stored in the folder avactis-templates/checkout/checkout-sequence/default/.

The contents of this template are arbitrary. Typically you will want to congratulate the customer on the completion of their purchase. The use of special checkout tags is not expected for this template.