How online ordering works

The cart

A customer adds products to a cart on your website and presses Check out. The cart is kept in the customer's own browser, so you never see a cart that someone left behind, and a customer who starts on a phone and moves to a computer starts over. Every time the cart opens, Roadside checks each price, the sales tax and what is on the shelf. The numbers on the page come from your product records.

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1. 1One line for each product, with its size, its price and a Remove link.
2. 2The customer changes the quantity here.
3. 3Sales tax, worked out from your location and each product's sales tax setting.
4. 4Takes the customer to the checkout.
5. 5Your pickup rule and address, from Store settings and Store info.
6. 6Appears when you offer delivery, with your delivery terms.

A line shows a problem in words the customer can act on, and Check out stays grayed out until the problem is gone. Most of these come from settings you control.

The checkout

The checkout is one page with three steps. A customer who pays by card never leaves your website: the card number goes straight into the card processor's own secure fields on the page, and Roadside never sees or keeps it. Step 1 asks for the customer's details. Name and email are always asked for, and the receipt and the ready note go to that email. Phone is required unless you set it to optional, and a delivery order always needs one. A farm or business name is asked only if you turn it on. A customer with a website account can sign in at the top of the step and the form fills itself. Guests can always check out.

Step 2 is the day. A customer chooses pickup at the store or, when you offer it, local delivery. The page shows your pickup rule and up to six days to choose from, with a Show more days link for the rest. Days you are closed, days that are full and days past your limit never appear. The customer can also leave a note with the order.

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1. 1Pickup is always offered. Local delivery appears when you turn it on.
2. 2Your pickup rule, in your words: cutoff time, ready time and closed days.
3. 3The first available day is chosen already.
4. 4The customer's note. It shows on the order and on the pick ticket.

When the customer chooses delivery, the page asks for a street address, town and ZIP code and works out the distance from your store. The fee shows as soon as the address is complete. The delivery fee is not taxed. Delivery, in Chapter 17 explains how you set the distances and the charge.

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1. 1The terms you set, in plain words.
2. 2Street address, town and ZIP code. A phone number is required for delivery.
3. 3The distance from the store and the delivery fee, with a credit line for the address lookup.

Step 3 is payment. The customer sees only the ways you have turned on. Paying by card opens a short Pay panel for the card. Pay at pickup places the order on the spot, and the customer pays you at the counter, or the driver on delivery, and you record how. Chapter 19, Payments, holds and refunds covers card payments, holds and bank payments in detail.

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1. 1The ways to pay that you have turned on.
2. 2The button changes with the choice: Continue to payment for a card, Place order for pay at pickup.
3. 3A line under the button says what happens next, so the customer knows whether the card is held or charged.

The order page and the emails

After the order is placed, the customer lands on an order page that shows the items, the total, the pickup or delivery day and what happens next. The stamp in the corner changes as you work the order: On hold, Paid, Pay at pickup, Ready, Picked up or Cancelled.

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1. 1The stamp shows where the order stands.
2. 2A sentence about this order: the hold, the pickup day and where the receipt went.
3. 3The ticket: items, tax, total and how the customer is paying.
4. 4What happens next, in three steps.

Roadside emails the customer in plain text, within about a minute. Each email ends with the sign-off you write in Store settings, then the name of your store.

Hi Gene Whitaker,

Thanks for your order! We'll email you when it's ready.

- 4 x 16% Layer Pellets  $58.00
- 2 x 4-Grain Scratch (50 lb bag)  $24.00

Subtotal: $82.00
Total: $82.00

Pickup: Friday, October 9, from noon.
Payment is taken when you pick up.

Baker Feed & Country Store

The confirmation for a pay-at-pickup order.

No email goes out when an order is marked picked up, when you refund, or when a customer sends in a farm tax exemption card. Your own staff get an email only if you fill in Email new orders to on the Emails & policies tab. It is blank until you do, and until then a new order shows up only on the screen.

Website accounts and farm tax exemption cards

A customer can make an account on your website. It is optional and guests can always check out. An account keeps a list of the customer's orders, fills in the checkout details, and has a place to send in a farm tax exemption card. Customers sign in on your website, not in Roadside, and Roadside has no screen for listing, resetting or turning off a customer's website sign-in. A customer who forgets the password uses the Forgot your password? link on the sign-in page.

Each web order also adds the customer to your Accounts list under Customers, tagged online customer, with a note for the order. Chapter 20, Customer accounts and contacts covers what to do with them.

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1. 1What the customer is told. Roadside shows only the last four digits back.
2. 2The card as sent, marked Waiting for the store to check it.

What happens to an order

You see a new order in three places: on Website home under Online orders to prepare, in Online orders under the To do tab, and in an email if you filled in Email new orders to. From there it moves through the same four steps whether the customer paid by card or will pay at the counter.

Stock leaves the shelf when the order opens: at once for a pay-at-pickup order, and when the card is held or paid for a card order. It comes back if you cancel the order. This applies to products that track stock; Chapter 13, Stock explains how to turn that on.

While a customer is paying

A card checkout takes a few minutes. While the customer pays, Roadside sets the items and the pickup day aside, so another customer cannot buy the last bag or take the last slot on a day you have limited. If the payment does not finish in about an hour, the order turns to Not paid and everything goes back. You can find these on the Not paid tab of Online orders. They keep their order numbers, so your numbers have gaps.

A bank payment works differently. It takes about four business days, the stock stays set aside, and the order does not appear in To do until the money arrives.

Who can do what

Store owners and Managers run the daily work of online ordering. Staff can work the orders but cannot refund or change settings. Chapter 26, Your team and what each role can do lists every role.

Sales tax comes from the tax rates Dirt Road sets up for your county, together with the sales tax setting on each product. There is no tax screen in Roadside. If tax looks wrong on an order, write to support@dirtroadsoftware.com with the order number.