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Customer Experience

So how does the customer make payments?

There are two points of entry into the payments process, from a customer point-of-view. If the customer is at your web-site and is purchasing something from an online shopping cart, then an invoice is generated behind the scenes to represent the product or service being offered. However, the invoice can also be created and billed as a separate process. But in both cases, an invoice exists as the basis of the transaction.

The customer goes to the web-site’s payments page to make payments. There, the customer is presented with a brief summary of the invoice and the amount due. However, please note that if WooCommerce is being used and the customer is simply checking-out, instead of the invoice summary, they’ll be shown a summary of their shopping cart order.

Below the invoice or WooCommerce order summary, the customer can see all the payment options which have been enabled.  (See the Payment Options section to learn how to enable a payment option.)

Customer view of online invoice and payment options

 

As the customer reviews all the payment options, they can click on the icon of the option they’re interested in and more information about that payment option will be shown. If the customer prefers to pay using conventional methods, such as credit cards, they may select PayPal™ or Stripe, provided those payment options have been setup and enabled as described in the relevant sections of this document.

Note that some of the crypto-currency icons are greyed-out, indicating that they are not available. The customer will not be able to select a payment option that is currently unavailable. Payment options may become temporarily unavailable if, for example, no current market activity is available for that crypto-currency/token, thus no exchange price can currently be calculated.

If the customer is using a computer and hovers the mouse over any of the crypto-currency icons, they will see a small text message appearing near their cursor, which will reveal the amount of that crypto-currency they will need to pay for this invoice. If they click on the icon of the crypto-currency they wish to use, all the other payment options will disappear and more information regarding the payment option they clicked on will appear. In this example, the customer has decided to get more information on the Bitcoin option by clicking its icon:

Customer clicks on a payment option

 

The customer can look it over and decide whether or not to continue. The red X button in the upper right corner can be used to close that payment option and once again be shown the full list of payment options. But if the customer wants to continue with the payment (in this case, with Bitcoin), simply clicking on the Pay with button will immediately reveal specific payment instructions, including the address to which the payment should be sent:

Customer has chosen a payment option

 

Once the customer selects a specific payment option, a pending payment entry is placed into the system and can be viewed by the web-site admin. In the administration console, a pending payment will be shown in the Payments tab listing, as well as when viewing an invoice in the Invoicing tab. The activity will also be recorded in the Logs section.

Now the customer can proceed with making the payment. The screen will show the exact amount and the receiving address to which they should send that amount. Both these items can be copy/pasted from the read-only boxes in which they are contained. Additionally, the customer can scan the QR-code shown on the right side which points to the receiving address. This makes it easier for customers wanting to use their mobile devices to enact the payment.

If the customer changes their mind and wants to use a different payment method, they can hit the Cancel and choose another payment method button. If they cancel the payment, it will cancel the pending payment in the system and the customer will again be shown all the payment options. The canceled payment will also be shown in the Payments, Invoicing and Logs sections in the administration console.

When the customer makes the payment and it is submitted to the block-chain, if Auto-reconciliation is enabled, then the system will monitor the block-chain, looking for that payment. If the customer remains on the payments page, they will receive updates indicating the status of that payment on the block-chain. For example, in the case below, the payment has been identified on the block-chain, but has not yet been finalized by accumulating the pre-set number of confirmations.

Pending payment in progress

 

If Auto-reconciliation is not enabled, Manual reconciliation must be used to give the customer credit for the transaction.

Once the payment has been officially recognized on the block-chain with the proper amount of confirmations, either automatically via Auto-reconciliation, or Manual reconciliation, the payment will be credited against the customer’s invoice. Once this happens, if the customer has remained on the payments page, the screen will refresh and show a “Payment received” notice, along with a summary of the payment information. (The customer will also receive an email receipt, if that setting is enabled.)

Payment received

 
Note that if WooCommerce is being used, then the order is updated automatically when a full payment has been received. If the order contains items which must be physically delivered, the order is marked as processing, which allows the normal fulfillment process to go into effect. If the order only has virtual items, such as PDF or ZIP files, which are deliverable via the internet, then the order is marked as complete and the customer is given the necessary download links via the standard WooCommerce order delivery mechanism. Note that you can override this feature, and always mark any order as processing upon a successful payment – see the settings document for more details.
 

PayPal is a trademark of PayPal Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
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