Checkout

Open Settings › Checkout.

How customers order

Checkout is one page and one step. It asks first for the customer’s details (email, name, phone with its country code, country; the code and the country start at the customer’s own country), then the shipping options for that country, then what the chosen option needs: the address for delivery to an address, the office search for an office or locker, your places for pickup. The order summary and the Complete order button show the total for the shipping option and payment method the customer has chosen, worked out before they press it: shipping, payment fee, discounts and VAT. Complete order · €31.00 places the order at that total. If it would come to another total (a VAT number that turns out valid, a code applied in between), nothing is placed: the page says the new total and the customer completes the order again. Apply next to the discount codes updates the totals without placing anything. Gift card codes go in the same field and pay what is left after discounts; see Gift cards.

The checkout checks the phone and the postal code as the customer’s country writes them (a Bulgarian mobile has 9 digits after +359; a Bulgarian postal code has 4 digits) and says how to write one that does not fit. A 0 typed before the number is dropped. When the chosen shipping option ships free over an amount, the summary says how much more the cart needs. Under the button, customers read “Secure checkout” and your return window from Settings › Policies › Return rules (“Free returns within 14 days”).

When your shipping options name two couriers or more, the shipping options start with a tile for each courier, its name in its colour; the customer picks a courier by its tile and then one of its options. Each option says when an order placed now arrives, such as “Arrives Thu, Oct 22 – Fri, Oct 23”. See Shipping and delivery.

In the order summary, each item has − and + to change how many, and Remove. The page shows the order again with everything the customer typed, the new totals and a note such as “Quantity of Clay bowl: 2”. + stops at the stock left, and − at one (Remove takes the item away). After Remove, Undo puts the item back. If the customer removes everything, the page says the cart is empty, with Undo to bring the last item back and Continue shopping; what they typed comes back with it.

For delivery to an address, Use my location asks the customer’s browser for their position, after the browser asks them, and fills in the street, city and postcode found there for them to check. For an office or locker, the offices found are shown on a small map, numbered as in the list. Both use Google Maps; the customer’s position is used for that one search and not kept.

While the customer types the address, matching street addresses in the chosen country are listed under the field. Choosing one, with the arrow keys and Enter or by tapping it, fills in the address, postal code and city for them to check; Escape closes the list and keeps what they typed. The suggestions come from Google Maps through your store, and what is typed is not kept.

For the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil, India, Mexico, Japan and China, the address also asks for the State or province, and it is required there; it shows only while one of those countries is chosen and is kept on the order’s address. Elsewhere it is never asked.

Pressing Enter in any field (or Go on a phone) updates the totals, as Apply does, and never places the order. Pressing Complete order twice places one order and takes the customer to it. When the store has customer accounts and the customer is not signed in, Have an account? Sign in stands under the email, so store credit and saved details are not missed. A free shipping option reads Free, at checkout, on the order page and in the summary.

When an item in the order summary is sold out, has fewer left than the customer wants (“Only 2 left”), or its options were changed since it went into the cart, the item says so; the cart and the cart drawer say the same beside it. Complete order then names the product to fix.

For a shipping option priced by the courier, Calculate delivery sits right under the shipping options and brings the customer back there with the price. Pressing Complete order before that asks the courier and shows the new total to confirm; a price older than five minutes is asked for again, never reported as a problem with the address.

When nothing in the cart ships, such as a gift card or a product with Ships in a parcel off, checkout asks for no address, delivery or billing address and offers no cash on delivery. It still asks for the country, for tax.

Orders

Most of one item in a cart stops anyone buying more than you want of one item, to protect your stock: a whole number from 1 to 999. Leave it empty for no limit. Like everything on this page, it is saved with Apply on the unsaved changes bar; a number it cannot take (0, a negative number, more than 999) is said under the field and Apply waits until you correct it.

Archive orders by themselves moves an order out of your working list once it is paid and fulfilled, or fully refunded. It stays under Archived, and you can bring it back. This is off until you turn it on, and it is saved with Apply too.

Style

Customize style opens Checkout style: your logo at the top of the checkout, where it sits and how large, and every colour of the checkout and the order pages (see Checkout style).

Text

Change text opens Checkout text: every word of the checkout and the order pages, in your own words for each of your languages (see Checkout text).

Customer information

One table lists every field of the checkout. For each, choose Don’t ask, Optional or Required where the checkout allows it:

• Email: Required, or Optional, so customers may give a phone number instead (see below).
• Last name, and Address and city: always asked (pickup asks for no address).
• Phone number: Don’t ask, Optional or Required. Delivery to a courier’s office or locker always asks for it, for the courier.
• First name: Optional or Required.
• Company name: Don’t ask, Optional or Required.
• VAT number: Don’t ask or Optional, once you ask for the company name, because a VAT number belongs to a company. It is kept on the order and its emails.
• Invoice request: Don’t ask or Optional. Optional adds an I need an invoice box. A customer who ticks it gives the company name, its registration number (such as the ЕИК in Bulgaria), its VAT number if it has one, and a billing address. With the box on, the VAT number is asked for there, not on its own. The order shows Invoice details with the number, and the order confirmation includes them. Storeloom records the request; you issue the invoice yourself, unless you have Issue VAT invoices when orders are paid on (Settings › Taxes and duties), whose invoices then bill that company with its registration number and VAT number.
• Address line 2 (flat, floor, unit): Don’t ask, Optional or Required.
• Postal code: Optional or Required. Where addresses have no postal code, such as Hong Kong or Tuvalu, it is never required.
• Order note: Don’t ask or Optional.

A phone number instead of an email

With email Optional, checkout has one box, Email or phone number. Anything with an @ in it counts as an email, and anything else as a phone number, which also fills the phone field if you ask for one. It is checked the same way as the phone field, and a number with no country code gets the code chosen beside the phone field or, if you don’t ask for a phone number, that of the country chosen for delivery.

Think about this before you choose it. A customer who gives only a phone number gets no order or shipping emails. Unless you text them (Emails › Text messages, see Text messages), they see their order only on the page after checkout, which tells them to keep it, and you have to phone them. A notice right under the setting says so.

They become a customer known only by that phone number. Their next order with the same number joins that customer, the latest if there are several. Written with a country code, a number only matches the same country’s, so people abroad with alike numbers stay apart.

A customer with an email is never matched by phone number, even if they have the same one. Nobody has proved whose a number is, and they could sign in and see the order’s name and address. So you get a second customer for those orders, and you can merge the two if they are one person. Even then, an order with no email never shows in a customer’s account.

Emails you would send about the order (confirmation, shipping, review requests, reminders) are simply skipped, so the order’s timeline shows none, and the order’s page offers no email actions. A marketing email tick from someone with no email counts for nothing; the box for texts works as usual.

Leaving out the email is no way around your rules. If a customer’s email is [blocked](/docs/blocked-customers/), an order with only their phone number is refused too. A discount limited to one use per customer counts for the number and for the email of any customer who has that number.

Some orders still need an email, and checkout says so and asks for it:

• gift cards
• subscriptions
• items with Ships in a parcel off
• paying later on a company’s terms, and iyzico
• bank transfer and your own payment methods, while you send payment reminders
• bank transfer, while you cancel bank transfer orders that stay unpaid

A customer who loses the page cannot find a phone-only order by email on the withdrawal page, because there is no email to find it by. They need the order’s own page, or to contact you.

Customers must sign in before checkout

Tick Customers must sign in before checkout to take orders only from customers with an account. It needs [customer accounts](/docs/customer-accounts/): while those are off you can’t tick it, and turning them off later never closes your checkout.

If it was ticked when you turned customer accounts off, it stays ticked and does nothing. It applies again the moment customer accounts are back on, so guests can no longer order. Customer accounts warns you before you apply that, and you can untick it here first.

Think about this one too: people who don’t want an account can’t order, and a notice beside the setting says so.

While it is on:

• Going to checkout sends a customer who is not signed in to your store’s sign-in page, and back to checkout with their cart once they are in.
• The email at checkout is the account’s and cannot be changed there, so choosing Optional has no effect and the Email row says so.
• Apple Pay and Google Pay are hidden, because they would skip signing in.
• A customer who opens an invoice you sent from a draft order pays without signing in, and orders you enter yourself and subscription renewals work as usual.

Countries you deliver to

Wherever your shipping options go (the default) offers the countries of your shipping options (see Shipping and delivery). Only the countries I choose narrows them: tick countries one by one, a whole continent at once, or All, EU or None, and Find a country to search. Checkout then offers only those countries, each shipping option only the ones it ships to, and an order to another country is refused.

Every country in the world is on the list, by continent. A shipping option for every country reaches them all except seven: nobody lives in Antarctica, Bouvet Island, South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands, Heard & McDonald Islands, the French Southern Territories or the U.S. Outlying Islands, and North Korea is under sanctions. Checkout offers one of those only when you tick it, here or on a shipping option; All ticks them too.

Billing address

At checkout, Use shipping address as billing address is ticked. A customer who unticks it gives a billing address of its own (country, name, company when you ask for it, address and city, and the postal code and line 2 as you ask for them). For delivery to a courier’s office or locker or pickup, the customer can tick Add a billing address instead. The order shows it as Billing address, or Same as shipping address.

Tick before ordering

Ask customers to tick a box before ordering adds a box above the order button, such as agreeing to your terms of sale. It is off until you switch it on, and you can switch it off at any time. Write Its words for each of your store’s languages (up to 500 characters); a language without words shows those of your first language, and without any words the box is not shown. Customers cannot complete the order without ticking it, it is never ticked for them, and each order keeps the words the customer ticked (Agreed at checkout on the order), with when, from which IP address, in which language and browser it was placed (see Orders).

Age-restricted products

While a cart holds a product marked Age-restricted, checkout asks the shopper to tick I confirm that I am 18 or older. (with your store’s minimum age) before the order button, in their language. Without the tick nothing is ordered, and the order keeps the answer. Apple Pay and Google Pay are not offered for such a product. Set the age, and an age page for every visitor, in Settings › Customer privacy › Age checks. Storeloom checks no identity: see that page.

Order button

Choose what the button that places the order says. Checkout shows the total after the words, such as Pay now · €31.00.

• Complete order (the default) and Pay now come in each customer’s language: Завърши поръчката or Плати сега for a Bulgarian customer, Bestellung abschließen or Jetzt bezahlen for a German one.
• My own words: write them for each of your store’s languages, up to 40 characters. A language without words says Complete order in that language, and the page names the languages that have none yet: a language you add later starts without them. Words longer than 40 characters are not cut: the field says how many characters they have, and Apply waits until you shorten them.

Some countries, Germany among them, require the button to make clear that ordering means paying: Pay now does.

Marketing

Show the marketing box at checkout lets customers tick a box to get your marketing emails. It is never ticked for them. Its words (one field for each of your store’s languages) change what the box says; empty shows “Email me with news and offers” in the customer’s language. Once you have written words in one language, the page names the languages still showing Storeloom’s words, such as a language you added later. Without the box, no customer is subscribed at checkout.

Texts adds a second box, under the phone field, for customers who want your offers on their phone: SMS, WhatsApp, or SMS and WhatsApp, so the box names exactly what they agree to (“Send me news and offers by text or WhatsApp”, in the customer’s language). It is never ticked for them, and it is not shown while the phone field is hidden. A customer who ticks it is asked for their phone number if they left it empty. Their consent is recorded for each channel the box named, with the time and “checkout”, on their customer page. Its words change what the box says, as for the email box. Don’t ask (the default) shows no box; choose it if you don’t send marketing texts. Texts about an order (see Text messages) need no box: while you send them, the checkout says by the phone field that the number may be used for them.

To ask customers to confirm by email before they are subscribed, turn on double opt-in in Settings › Customer privacy.

Tips

Tips are off until you turn them on. Tick Offer tips at checkout to let customers add a tip for your team when they order.

• The percentages customers choose from: three of your own, 5, 10 and 15 to start with. Each must be different, above 0 and at most 100, with up to two decimals (7.5 is fine). A percentage is taken of the items after their discounts, as the order summary shows them, before delivery and tax: 10 % on €45.00 of items is €4.50, whatever the delivery costs. If the three are not right, the page says so under them and Apply waits until you correct them.
• Let customers type an amount of their own: on unless you untick it. An amount can be at most what the items cost after their discounts, so a slip of the keyboard never becomes a tip larger than the purchase.
• Its words: the line under the heading, one field for each of your store’s languages. Empty shows Storeloom’s words in the customer’s language, as the field shows. The heading and the other words of the tip can be changed in Checkout text, like every other phrase.
• Tips are taxed: off unless you tick it. Off, a tip carries no tax and stays off the taxed lines of your invoices. On, a tip is taxed at your standard rate for the order’s country, the way your prices there are: the tax is inside the tip where your prices include tax (a €4.00 tip at 20 % holds €0.67 of VAT), and comes on top where they do not (a €2.00 tip becomes €2.40). How tips are taxed differs from country to country and with who receives them: ask your accountant which applies to you.
• Bulgaria: Bulgarian law taxes a tip like any other sale. Every order taxed in Bulgaria carries VAT on its tip at the order’s standard rate (20 %), whatever Tips are taxed says and wherever your store is. Orders taxed in any other country follow your tick, a Bulgarian store’s too. A store in Bulgaria sees a line saying so beside the tick. A customer you exempted from tax, or a business buying under EU reverse charge, pays no VAT on a tip, as on the rest of the order.

At checkout, under the ways to pay, customers see Add a tip: your three percentages, each with what it comes to, No tip, and Another amount when you allow one. Nothing is chosen for them. Choosing one shows the tip as its own line in the order summary and in the total on the Complete order button; an amount above the most you take, or one that is not an amount, is said under the field. Customers who pay with Apple Pay or Google Pay from a product page are not asked, and neither are customers paying an invoice you sent from a draft order.

A tip is its own line on the order, on the customer’s order page, in the order emails and on the invoice, and has its own column in the order exports. It is never part of your sales: discounts, free delivery over an amount, minimum orders, affiliates' commissions and your sales reports do not count it. Reports and Finance show tips as their own figure.

An edit to the order never changes the tip, and Lower price can take the price to nothing but leaves the tip. When you refund, you choose each time: beside the refund’s choices, Give the tip back says what is left of the tip (with its VAT when it was taxed). It starts ticked on Full refund and unticked on the others, and you can change it on any of them; ticked, the tip goes back with the refund, whole and once (see Returns and refunds).

The tip is never part of what your ad networks (Meta, Google and the other pixels), your customer events, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Omnisend and Yotpo are told an order was worth: they get what was bought, without the tip. Apps that read your orders get the whole order, tip included.

EU reverse charge

Businesses in another EU country with a valid VAT number pay no VAT: they account for it themselves.

Don’t charge VAT to businesses in other EU countries with a valid VAT number can be switched on when:

• your own EU VAT number is in Settings › Company details (reverse charge is between two VAT-registered businesses), and
• you ask for the VAT number (Customer information, above).

Each number is checked with the EU’s VIES service when the checkout page is sent with it (when the customer applies a code or completes the order). With prices that include VAT, the VAT is taken off their total. If the check cannot be made, VAT is charged and the order says so.

You are responsible for invoicing reverse-charge sales correctly and reporting them (EC Sales List). Storeloom keeps the customer’s VAT number and the check on each order.

Apply in the bar at the top (it says Unsaved changes while something is not saved) applies the settings to new orders.