How checkout works

There are two ways somebody can pay you. On a store, they fill a basket and pay for it at the store's checkout. On a sales page in a funnel, they pay for the product you attached to that page. Both end on Stripe's secure payment page, and both pay into your own Stripe account.

Before you start

• Stripe connected under Settings › Payments.
• A product with a price. A product priced at zero cannot be sold through a checkout.
• A store (see Open a store), or a funnel step with a product attached (see Sell a product on a funnel page).

Steps: test your own checkout

1. Open your published store or sales page in a private browser window, so you see it as a stranger does.
2. On a store, press a product's buy button: Add to basket (Add another once one is in), Buy now if the store goes straight to checkout, or Sold out at zero stock.
3. At the checkout, enter a real email address; the order confirmation goes there.
4. If the basket holds something to post, choose the country under Delivering to. Only the countries you deliver to are listed.
5. If you have a code, type it into Discount code (optional).
6. Press the pay button. It names the amount: Pay £24.00 + delivery on a store that posts, Pay $49.00 on a sales page, or Continue to payment when the page offers several products to choose from.
7. Stripe's page opens. The buyer enters their card and, for posted goods, picks a delivery option and gives the delivery address.
8. After paying, the buyer lands on your thank-you page. The order appears under Sales › Orders.

What happens after a payment

• The buyer becomes a contact, or their existing contact record is updated.
• An order is recorded with the payment status Paid and the fulfilment status Not sent.
• Courses, downloads and memberships open for the buyer in their customer account.
• The buyer gets an Order confirmation email with a link to their account, and you get a New order email.
• If a partner sent the buyer through an affiliate link or code, the sale is credited to that partner.

A bank-debit payment (such as ACH or BECS) takes a few days to settle. The order starts as Pending, nothing is granted, and nothing is emailed. When Stripe confirms the money arrived, the order becomes Paid and access opens. If the debit fails, the order becomes Failed and any discount code it used is given back.

Things to know

• Prices always come from the product, never from the page. Editing a figure on a page does not change what is charged.
• A store shows your refund policy, privacy policy and terms under the pay button, when you have filled them in under its Settings tab.
• Delivery is priced on Stripe's page. See Set up delivery zones and rates.
• A one-off payment is never charged below Stripe's minimum for the currency; a product discounted to almost nothing is charged that minimum.
• A store basket in which everything renews on the same schedule, such as a membership, starts a subscription that renews by itself, as on a sales page. A basket that mixes a subscription with anything else is refused.
• The checkout does not add tax. See Receipts, invoices and tax.

For agencies

A store or funnel copied to a client with Copy to client… keeps its pages but not your products. Each client's checkout sells the client's own products into the client's own Stripe account.

Troubleshooting

When a payment cannot start, the buyer is sent back to the page with a message, and every message says that nothing has been charged.

Buyers see "This shop cannot take payments just yet". Stripe is not connected, or cannot charge yet. Fix it under Settings › Payments. See Connect your Stripe account.

Buyers see "We do not deliver to the country you chose". That country is in none of your delivery zones and you have no "Everywhere else" rates. Add it to a zone, or add rates under Everywhere else.

Buyers see "That code is not valid for this purchase". The code has expired, is used up, is switched off, does not cover these products, or is not allowed on sales pages. See Create discount codes.

Buyers see "A subscription has to be paid for on its own". Their basket held a subscription with something else, or a monthly subscription with a yearly one. They check out the subscription by itself, then the rest.

Buyers see "We could not start the payment". Something went wrong reaching Stripe. It is safe to try again.

My sales page shows a price, but the button only collects an email. Nothing is attached to that step. On the funnel's page the step shows Shows a price but nothing is attached to sell. Press Sell something here and attach the product.

An order says Pending and the buyer has no access. It is a bank-debit payment that has not settled. Access opens by itself when Stripe confirms it.

Related

• Connect your Stripe account
• Sell a product on a funnel page
• Find and fulfil orders
• What your customers see in their account
• Payments failing