Setting up your checkout

The checkout is how your customers make a purchase on your eCom store. There are mandatory and options steps to follow when setting up your checkout.

Mandatory steps

To enable your checkout, you must:

1. Enable a shipping method
2. Enable a payment provider
3. Enable taxes: USA and Canada | Europe and the world
4. Selling in Germany: Set legal mode to strict.
5. Test your checkout

Optional steps

Lightspeed eCom has a functional checkout by default. Follow these instructions to customize your checkout to suit your needs.

1. Control the information your customers provide
2. Limit checkout permissions
3. Simplify checkout by hiding the register/login option
4. Customize the title and add content to your thank you page
5. Change the number of checkout pages needed
6. Disable the progress bar
7. Disable the newsletter
8. Hide taxes from checkout
9. Combine tax rates in checkout
10. Disable the terms and conditions checkbox

Optional

1. Control the information your customers provide

   You can control what information your customers provide when they complete checkout. 

2. Limit checkout permissions

   By default, the checkout is Enabled. This allows all guests and registered customers to checkout. You can select:

   • Disabled - Prevents all users from adding products to the shopping cart. Displays Checkout has been disabled on the home page and product pages. This option is useful when disabling your eCom store.
   • Forced - Allows guests and registered customers to add products to the shopping cart. Prevents checkout for guests until they log in. When a guest clicks the checkout button, they are taken to the account login screen with the message Guest checkout has been disabled. Please log in first. Adjust this setting when controlling guest purchases.
   • Registered customers only - Prevents guests from adding products to the shopping cart. Displays Guest checkout has been disabled. Please log in first on the home page and product pages. Limited to subscriptions that have the B2B feature set, this feature is useful when setting up B2B features.

3. Simplify checkout by hiding the register/login option

   This is more useful when using multi-step checkout. You can remove a step that asks your customers if they would like to register or create a guest account. This is useful to decrease the number of parts in checkout, allowing you to potentially improve conversion.

   1. In your eCom admin, select Settings.
   2. Select Advanced at the bottom of the General Settings column.
   3. Scroll down to the REGISTRATION section and select Guest only from the dropdown menu labeled: Registration.
   4. Select Save.

   Guest only appears differently when other checkout types are enabled:

   • • One page:  Hides the registration portion of checkout which shortens the length of the page by a small amount.
     • One step: Hides the Log in or register link above the customer information column on the left. This has no effect on the length, only slightly decluttering the checkout page.

4. Customize the title and add content to your thank you page

   You can add content to the thank you page. The thank you page is what your customers are redirected to after completing checkout. You can add or modify text content using the text editor.

   1. In your eCom admin, select Content.
   2. Select the title of the thank you page to open it.
   3. Edit the Title and add content.
   4. Select Save.

5. Decrease the number of pages in checkout

   All checkout types have similar checkout stages. The default checkout type: Multi-step, displays the checkout stages on six pages. To display the stages on less pages, enable Single page or Single step. Enable more than one type to use A&B testing to identify the best checkout configuration.

   1. In your eCom admin, select Settings.
   2. Select Checkout, found under the right column titled Payment Settings.
   3. Enable the switch beside single page and/or single step.
   4. Select Configure under:
      • Multi step checkout to remove the progress bar in checkout.
      • One page checkout to remove the progress bar and hide the login/registration screen.
      • One step checkout to remove the progress bar, hide the login/registration screen and disable the guided steps. Disable steps prevents customers from completing the next steps in checkout, until the earlier steps are completed. For example, your customers cannot enter their payment information before they enter their shipping information with Disable steps enabled.

6. Disable the progress bar

   Disabling the progress bar affects all progress bars, including on the cart page and all checkout pages, even if enabled in Settings > Checkout > Configure. Progress bars are enabled by default.

   1. In your eCom admin, select Settings.
   2. Select Advanced at the bottom of the General Settings column.
   3. Scroll to the STORE section and disable the switch labeled Show progress.
   4. Click Save.

7. Disable the newsletter

   By default, eCom offers your customers the option to subscribe to your newsletter. If you don't send newsletters it may be useful to disable it. This may decrease distracting elements on the confirmation page of your checkout.

   1. In your eCom admin, select Settings.
   2. Select Advanced at the bottom of the General Settings column.
   3. Scroll to the STORE section disable the switch labeled Newsletter.
   4. Select Save.

8. Hide taxes from your checkout

   When you do not charge tax on your orders, you may want to remove the tax line from the last stage of your checkout. Your checkout will display the tax line by default.

   1. In your eCom admin, select Settings.
   2. Select Taxes located in the column labeled Payment Settings.
   3. Disable the switch labeled Show taxes in checkout.
   4. Select Save. 

9. Combine or separate tax rates in checkout

   For eCom stores in North America, there can be multiple taxes per municipality, state and country. For these stores, taxes are displayed one per line. This feature is unavailable for eCom stores in the Europe or Australia. This feature also affects your cart. By default, taxes are seperate.

   1. In your eCom admin, select Settings.
   2. Select Taxes located in the column labeled Payment Settings.
   3. Enable the switch labeled Combine tax rates at checkout.
   4. Select Save.

10. Disable the terms and conditions checkbox

    Disabling this setting can improve conversion by decreasing the number of clicks to complete checkout. Review your government and payment provider's checkout requirements before making adjustments. If unsure, use the default setting: Show checkbox and message.

    1. In your eCom admin, select Checkout.
    2. In the CHECKOUT SETTINGS section, for Checkout terms and conditions select either:
       • Hide checkbox and message
       • Show message only
    3. Select Save.