One of the most frustrating aspects of shopping online is the checkout process. Consumers want to quickly and easily purchase their desired products without the hassle of filling out too many questions and forms. Luckily, with Liftoff, customer checkout can be a breeze! You can remove certain steps from checkout in several ways, based on how things are configured.
How can I simplify checkout for my customers?
Below are the full requirements to set up a checkout process that eliminates the need to fill out the shipping address, shipping method, and billing panes, along with the steps to achieve them!
Hide the “Shipping Address” pane
In order to hide the “Shipping Address” pane at checkout, make sure all of the following requirements are met:
The customer is not a guest AND
The pickup option is not available AND
The customer has exactly one shipping address AND
The customer cannot add or edit shipping addresses
To satisfy the above requirements, follow these steps:
1. Disable guest checkout.
Go to Customers/Contacts > Access Settings > Login/Registration and select Do not allow guest checkout under Guest Checkout:
2. Disable customer pickup.
Go to Ecommerce > Shipping and delete the Customer Pickup option, if displayed:
3. Make sure the customer has exactly one shipping address.
The easiest way to enforce a single shipping address for all customers is to go to Customers/Contacts > Default Addresses and add a single default shipping address for your account. Then make sure your customers do not have any shipping addresses of their own.
In lieu of a single account-level default shipping address, you could specify a single shipping address for each individual customer. However, that can be difficult to manage manually if you have many customers.
4. Disable adding/editing shipping addresses for customers.
Finally, to remove shipping address editing from the checkout page – and to make sure customers don’t create additional shipping addresses – you need to disable the option that lets customers add or edit shipping addresses.
This option may be disabled for existing customers by going to Customers/Contacts > Customers/Contacts > Edit > Settings and unchecking the Let the customer add, edit, and delete billing addresses option.
You can disable this option for all future customers by going to Customers/Contacts > Access Settings > Customer Defaults and unchecking the Let new customers add, edit, and delete shipping addresses option:
Hide the “Shipping Method” pane
Hiding the “Shipping Method” pane at checkout is easy – just make sure only one shipping method is available, and that it cannot be used for both standard and rush shipping. If there is only one way for customers to ship orders, then Liftoff does not display shipping method selection at checkout.
Go to Ecommerce > Shipping > Methods and make sure only one shipping method is listed. If others are displayed, delete them!
Also, make sure that Available is not selected for Rush Option. Available means that the shipping method may be used for either standard or rush shipping, which requires displaying that choice to the customer on the “Shipping Method” pane.
Hide the “Billing & Payment” pane
If you want to hide the “Billing & Payment” pane at checkout, all of the following requirements must be met:
The customer has exactly one billing address AND
The customer cannot add or edit billing addresses AND
The customer is set to Open Account AND
Discounts are not enabled AND
Budgets are not enabled AND
Credit cards are not enabled
To satisfy the above requirements, follow these steps:
1. Make sure the customer has exactly one billing address.
As with shipping addresses, the easiest way to enforce a single billing address for all customers is to go to Customers/Contacts > Default Addresses and add a single default billing address for your account. Then make sure your customers do not have any billing addresses of their own.
In lieu of a single account-level default billing address, you could specify a single billing address for each individual customer. However, that can be difficult to manage manually if you have many customers.
2. Disable adding/editing billing addresses for customers.
To remove the ability to edit billing addresses on the checkout page, you need to disable the option that lets customers add or edit shipping addresses.
This option may be disabled for existing customers by going to Customers/Contacts > Customers/Contacts > Edit > Settings and unchecking the Let the customer add, edit, and delete billing addresses option.
You can disable this option for all future customers by going to Customers/Contacts > Access Settings > Customer Defaults and unchecking the Let new customers add, edit, and delete shipping addresses option:
2. Set the customer to Open Account.
Next, you need to make sure customers can complete the checkout process without having to enter a payment method. If the customer is set to Open Account, then the order is invoiced to them for offline payment.
To set an existing customer to Open Account, go to Customers/Contacts > Customers/Contacts > Edit > Settings and check the Set customer to Open Account option.
You can automatically enable this option for all future customers by going to Customers/Contacts > Access Settings > Customer Defaults and checking the Set new customers to Open Account option:
4. Disable discounts.
To avoid displaying the discount field at checkout, you must disable discounts for your account. Go to Ecommerce > Discounts > Settings and uncheck Enable discounts on my site:
5. Disable budgets.
To avoid displaying the budget payment option at checkout, you must disable budgets for your account. Go to Ecommerce > Gift Cards/Budgets > Settings and uncheck Enable gift cards and budgets on my site:
6. Disable credit cards.
Finally, to avoid displaying the credit card payment option at checkout, make sure credit cards are not enabled for your account. Go to Ecommerce > Payment > Credit Cards and select Do not accept credit cards on this website:
The result
Once all steps are complete, your customer’s checkout screen will go from having multiple steps to one! Watch your checkout screen go from this:
To this!
Streamlining the checkout process can increase sales and create a better customer experience. If you’re looking to make these changes, we’re here to help!
Do you have any questions about Liftoff’s capabilities? Reach out to us at support@liftoffcommerce.com for more information.