Checkout Settings
[Intro] In this lesson, we’ll be discussing setting up and managing your app’s Checkout Settings. Let’s get started.
[Editor/Emulator] To access your Checkout settings, go to the Platfio Editor and click on Settings, then Store, and you can see that we have some niche controls here that you might want to be aware of.
The first is setting up Surcharges. You can toggle on a fixed surcharge, for example, $0.30 on every order is the value that you would like to charge your customers as a transaction fee.
Similarly, you might want to put 1.75% on every order as a transaction fee. These values are quite common for many apps because they offset the Stripe fees.
We also have a minimum spend option ($15) which would require people to spend the amount before they could check out with a payment.
Next, let’s look at Order Restrictions. In some cases, you may have a very special group of users whom you want to allow to send orders unpaid. Let’s say we have a special family and friends group and we actually allow them to book and order without paying. Take note that this applies to unpaid orders but doesn’t apply to subscriptions. Or you can turn off unpaid orders for all users.
Similarly, we might only want to allow paid orders by a specific group. However, it’s more common to allow paid orders by everyone and limit the ability to send unpaid orders to only a special group of people. From an efficiency perspective, it’s best if all users just pay so that we don’t have to follow up on payments.
Next, if we go to Order Statuses, we can set up different statuses for our orders. For most small businesses, a very simple set of statuses is sufficient. An order comes in and it’s pending, then the order is completed, and finally, the order is archived.
However, you might have a warehouse situation where you might need a Pending, Processing, Packed, and Completed status. Then, press save to add these different stages.
If we turn on notifications for a stage, we can make it so that if our staff marks the order as having reached this stage, it automatically sends a push notification to users.
For example, we can turn on the toggle for Completed to notify the user. Similarly, we can turn it on for Processed, and let’s write a notification message as well. (We’re making stuff happen with your order.)
Bear in mind that you also get a special notification just for shipping, so you do not need to include shipped in the order statuses. We recommend looking at our shipping setup video for more information on how you can mark an order specifically as shipped. You can use these statuses however you please.
Next, we can set up our invoice. Many businesses need to include their ABN, business name, trading name, special notes, and contact information on their invoices. These details will be merged into all your customers’ invoices for orders, bookings, and subscriptions.
We can also allow notes in the Checkout. By toggling this on, unstructured notes can be added to orders and bookings. You even have the option to toggle and hide discounted prices.
Finally, we can set up in-store payment methods. These in-store payment methods are available when in the point-of-sale system and the post-payment system.
For example, if a user, perhaps a family member or friend, is allowed to send unpaid orders, we can mark their order as paid using one of these in-store payment methods once it comes in.
We might say we have a Square Reader that we want to accept payment from, we might say we want to accept payment in Cash for some cases, Service Exchange is another common one in small businesses.
So what we might do is set those up as in-store payment methods. And then, in the case where we have orders or bookings going through the Point of Sale system. or when we allow users to make unpaid orders and bookings, we can mark those orders as paid, using one of these methods.
Under Bookings, we have similar controls, including surcharges, invoices, and in-store payments, as well as order reminders. Order reminders are a special set of automations applicable only to bookings. Check out our video on Automations for a detailed understanding of how to use Automations to remind customers about bookings.
[Outro] Thank you for watching!