Image; the new Ivory version of the cupless Vargas, available on pre-order
I am aware that the checkout of foxing some folks and I agree, it has some confusing bits.
You can read about why that is at the bottom if you're into the boring business back end stuffs, but as I'm mostly keen that you can make orders, the illustrated guide comes first :)
After adding items to your basket, click on check out. You should then see this.
(The item in this is just an example - you should see whatever you added. Double check it all)
Paypal like to make themselves VERY OBVIOUS so their bit is on the right in bright yellow. If you want other options hit the much more subtle "Check Out" - now in a magenta cloud below;
Then you should get this;
Fill in the shipping info; it will automatically check if it's a real zip or postal code. Double check you have typed your email address correctly (we can fix anything else but if there's an error there we are DOOMED).
Add any gift cards or discount codes on the right. You can only use one at once. If we let you stack them I would be out of business very fast :)
The shop then calculates the postage (and at our end, calculates our tax liability! fun times)
Click "continue to shipping" where I only give you one option because we just aren't big enough to do more. It's automatically ticked. You get one more chance to add a code.
Click "Continue To Payment". Usually, "PayPal" is automatically ticked here - the blue dot on the left means that bit has been selected. If you are planning to pay now, get delivery as soon as possible, make sure this is selected.
Hit "Complete Order"; a Paypal window will open. It will auto-fill with your Paypal if you have one. If you don't you will see this - if you want this, clear your email and reload.
Obviously PayPal REALLY want to get you into have an account so they make the pay without option unobtrusive. I've made another magenta cloud round it. Click on that to pay without a PayPal account. You will end up on this
Fill it all out, dodge next prompt to get an account, hit pay now. Done.
Yes, PayPal want to take over the world.
OK so, if you want to buy now but pay later you have two options so let's run through those. These are useful if you can't access credit, or if you don't want to risk us failing to deliver (especially pre-order items).
If you are buying from outside the UK your only option here is Laybuy-by-Paypal. This lets you set up anything from 2-6 payments; we tend to hold the items until its completed.
Advance warning, refunding these is a challenge as it has to be done very slowly by trawling through transactions and then making some manual payments. It's also a wee bit glitchy as it's seems to be run by just one person, but so far I've always been able to sort it out and it's been surprisingly popular.
To use this click on the round dot to the left of it so that it's blue.
Then click Complete Order; you'll end up here and just follow their process through.
You can speak to us about if anything goes wrong or you want to change the plan (though we can only switch between laybuy or buy now, nothing else).
In some countries, you can access Laybuy via Klarna. This means we get the money straight away and you pay them. However, they will do a soft credit check on you - and it doesn't work globally.
But you can check it out by clicking the circle to the left of it and turning it blue;
And then hit Complete Order and end up here;
As you can tell, they spent a lot more on brand and marketing ;)
In 2022, the financial conduct authorities mandated that they provide a clear explanation of their process and of the credit implications. Here that is;
The most important thing to know is that using them and your payments to them affect your credit rating.
OK, so that's how the payment works.
But how and why have I ended up in the situation where I have to explain it?
Basically I'm stuck in a power struggle between the shopping platform (Shopify) and the payment providers. Shopify REALLY wants us to use their integrated payment provider - Stripe. But for various reasons - not being able to deal with them directly, cashflow implications, lack of options for working capital loans, not wanting to split the cashflow between too many providers, as we have to have PayPal or we get tons of complaints - I want to stick with PayPal.
Historically that's been mostly fine, we used to be able to integrate Paypal into the checkout so it just looked "normal" and like you were just on the site.
(As an aside; payments are never directly handled by merchants. None of us could handle the security required. You've always needed a payment provider, and merchants don't have access to any of your payment info, we never see it)
Then . . . last year, I think? new regulations came in - if you're in the EU you'lll know this because you'll have started having to use One Time Passcodes and so on to do all your online financial stuff. It's supposed to protect customers (and it probably does) from fraud. Unfortunately, it broke the integrated PayPal option, and so far I've not managed to resurrect it. Shopify are basically like "well hey if you don't like it you can move to our integrated payment option then can't you!", which is understandable but frustrating.
And so that is why checkout is a bit more confusing than it used to be. Welcome to my job, it's full of fiddly compliance stuff and admin, bet you're super jealous of working in fashion now right? :)
