Storefront and checkout

The storefront

The home page of your site lists your product groups. Each group has a page with its products and prices, and each product has a direct order link, so you can send customers or advertising straight to one plan. Both links are on the product's Links tab.

Add ?cycle= and the number of months to open a link on a billing cycle: ?cycle=1 is monthly, ?cycle=3 quarterly, ?cycle=12 yearly and ?cycle=36 every three years (?cycle=0 is one-time). For example https://example.com/order/hosting/starter?cycle=36. It works on group pages and direct product links. A cycle that the product does not offer is ignored, and cycles measured in days or weeks have no number. On the Comparison Table layout only monthly (1), quarterly (3) and yearly (12) can be preselected.

The header menu is the same on every public page. Plugins add entries (Status page, Documentation, Knowledgebase, Software and so on) only when they have something to show.

The cart

Customers add products to a session-based cart (no account needed yet). For each item they:

• pick the billing cycle,
• choose configurable options,
• fill in custom fields,
• enter or search a domain, register a new one, use their own, or transfer one in.

Items can be removed and a promotion code can be entered. The cart shows the tax estimate when Show Tax From Beginning is on.

One-page checkout

Checkout is one page:

1. New customer: the form creates their client account (with optional and required profile fields as you set them) and the order. Existing customer: they sign in first.
2. They choose a payment method (any active gateway, or the client's default).
3. They accept the terms of service (if you set a URL).
4. A CAPTCHA appears if you enabled one.
5. On submit WHBMP creates the client, the order and the invoice, then sends the customer to pay.

The order number and a confirmation page follow. The customer gets the new-order and invoice emails.

What happens next

It depends on the product's Auto Setup rule and the payment:

• The invoice stays unpaid until a payment is recorded on it. Today that is done by staff (Add Payment), for example after a bank transfer arrives. See Payment gateways and recording payments.
• When the payment is recorded and the invoice is fully paid, the service is created if the product's Auto Setup is "first payment".
• Fraud screening or a "returning customers only" rule can hold an order for staff to approve. See Managing orders.

Currencies and tax

A switcher lets visitors choose a currency. Tax is worked out from the billing country and state they enter and appears on the page before they pay, using the same calculation as the invoice.

Domains at checkout

If you have a registrar connected, customers can search and register domains in the cart. See Domain registrars.

Maintenance mode

When Maintenance mode is on (General Settings), the storefront and client area show a notice. Staff can still sign in and payment callbacks still work, so a payment in progress is not lost.