The Buyer Experience
What your buyers see from cart to delivery, including checkout rules, the emails they receive, order tracking and order links.
Knowing what your buyers see helps you answer their questions. Buyers don't need an account; every purchase is a guest checkout.
Cart
- Buyers can add up to 14 different products to their cart.
- Some things can't be bought together in one order. The buyer is asked to check out separately when the cart mixes:
- digital and physical products,
- services with anything else,
- event tickets with anything else, or tickets for more than one event.
- Prices are shown in your primary currency until the buyer picks another one. See Currency conversion.
- Stock and prices are checked again at checkout. If something sold out or changed, the buyer is told before paying.
Checkout
The checkout page collects:
- First name, Last name, Email address and Country (always required)
- Phone (required, except for digital-only orders)
- Address, City, State / Province and Postal code / ZIP (required when the order is being shipped)
- An optional Note, which shows on the order as "Note from customer"
- Any extra questions you set up for events
You can add your own message to the checkout page in Checkout settings.
Shipping options
For physical products, buyers see the shipping methods that every item in the cart offers:
- The price is each item's shipping price for that method multiplied by its quantity, added up across the cart.
- The delivery time shown is the slowest one among the items. The buyer's confirmation includes estimated delivery dates.
- Local Pickup (FREE) appears if you offer pickup and every item in the cart is available for pickup. Hovering over it shows your pickup city and hours.
Shipping methods and prices are set per product. See Adding Products.
Payment options
Buyers see only the methods you've turned on that fit their cart:
- Credit Card (Stripe) or Credit Card / PayPal (PayPal): only your default provider is shown
- Cash at Pickup (Local Pickup only)
- Interac e-Transfer (CAD stores) and Zelle (USD stores)
- Pay After Service (services only)
If you use Stripe Hosted Checkout, buyers are sent to a Stripe-hosted payment page showing your store name and, if you've set them, your logo and brand colour. They're brought back to your store afterwards. Details: Payment Setup and Payments & Payouts.
After the order
The confirmation page thanks the buyer, shows their order number, and tells them what happens next. For example, they'll get an email with tracking once you ship, or when the order is ready for pickup. If a card payment is still processing or has failed, the page says so.
Emails buyers receive
All buyer emails come from your store's name, sent by E2C. Order emails can't be turned off. They're marked Always on in Notification settings.
| Email subject | When it's sent |
|---|---|
| Order Confirmation | When the order is paid or placed (cash, Interac, Zelle, free and pay-after-service orders get it straight away; Stripe/PayPal orders once payment succeeds). Includes the items, totals, a link to track the order, and download links (digital) or a ticket PDF (events). Interac/Zelle orders include your payment instructions |
| Order Error | A Stripe or PayPal payment failed |
| Order Shipped | You add shipping info |
| Order Shipping Details Updated | You change shipping info |
| Order Ready For Pickup | You click Mark Ready For Pickup |
| Order Refunded By your store | You issue a refund. Includes your reason |
| Order Cancelled By your store | You cancel the order. Includes your reason |
| Your Event Tickets | You mark an Interac/Zelle event order as paid |
No email is sent when you mark an order as processing or complete, or (for non-event orders) when you mark a payment as received.
Emails you receive
You get a New Order email for each new order: when an online payment succeeds, or straight away for cash, Interac, Zelle, free and service orders. Failed and abandoned payments don't trigger it.
Order tracking
Every confirmation email has a private track your order link (your store link + /track/ + the order number and a security code). There's no lookup form: buyers need that link, so point them back to their confirmation email if they lose it.
The tracking page shows the order number, status, a progress bar (for example Order Received → Payment Processed → Order Processed → Order Shipped → Order Complete, with pickup and cash versions of the steps), the expected arrival dates, and the carrier, tracking number and tracking link once you've shipped. Event orders show their tickets.
Order links
From the Products page you can select products and click Order link to build a link that fills a buyer's cart with specific products, options and quantities (up to 99 each). This is handy for closing a sale in WhatsApp or Instagram chats. The buyer opens the link, reviews the items, and clicks through to the normal checkout. Prices are never in the link, so buyers always pay your current price, and anything sold out or no longer sold is flagged.