Implement Robust Order Capture

Retail Digital Commerce includes robust order capture tools to ensure that orders are persisted and problems can be resolved if there are errors during the payment or order submission process.

This section applies to OSF. This section applies to Open Storefront Framework (OSF).

The tools available depend on the options specified in the Setup tab in the Payment Processing settings in the administration interface. This tab has a Payment Options drop-down with two options:

  • Allow Partial Payment/Early Persist -- When a shopper attempts to submit an order, Retail Digital Commerce saves it in the PENDING_PAYMENT state before processing payments.
  • Full Payment Required -- When a shopper attempts to submit an order, the order state is INCOMPLETE until all payments are authorized.

The Setup tab also includes a Price Hold Period field. If Allow Partial Payment/Early Persist is selected, the Price Hold Period setting specifies the amount of time the shopper is given to provide missing payment information before an order is cancelled. The order's prices will not change during this interval.

Use Early Persist

If the Allow Partial Payment/Early Persist option is selected, when a shopper submits an order, the order is initially placed in the PENDING_PAYMENT state. If a payment fails but Retail Digital Commerce does not receive an error, the order remains in this state. During the price hold period, the shopper can add payments to the order, but cannot make other changes or delete the order. At the end of the price hold period, if the order is still in the PENDING_PAYMENT state, it is marked for cancellation.

For example, the order processing might proceed as follows:

  1. A shopper begins the checkout process using a web checkout system.
  2. The shopper enters payment information on the payment provider’s screen.
  3. An error occurs with the payment that prevents the order submission from completing successfully.
  4. The order remains in the PENDING_PAYMENT state, and the shopper does not receive an order confirmation.
  5. The shopper can see the order in the PENDING_PAYMENT state and resubmit the order with payment. The merchant can also see the order and take steps to resolve the issue.

To support this option, you must ensure that your order history and checkout widgets can handle the PENDING_PAYMENT state, and that your storefront allows the shopper to see order issues and take corrective action. For example, the storefront should enable the shopper to see order status, update payment information, and resubmit an order that has not been successfully submitted. On storefronts built using the Open Storefront Framework, the Allow Partial Payment/Early Persist option is recommended, and the included widgets are designed to handle these situations.

Note that if an anonymous shopper has a partially paid order, the order must be completed before the session times out, because the shopper has no way to access the order when returning to the site later. However, if the Order Payment Initiated email is enabled, the shopper is sent an email with the order ID when the order is created, and can supply this ID to a customer service agent for completing the order.