Checkout turns your cart into an order. You confirm your payment method and any other order details, review the order, and submit it.
When to Use This
Use checkout after your cart includes the items you want to buy. If you still need to add items, see Build a Shopping Cart. Some associations also send direct purchase links that open checkout with specific items already selected; once you arrive, those links follow the same checkout process.
Prerequisites
- You must be signed in. Checkout cannot open for a visitor who is not signed in, even when the store page is public. A public store page does not enable guest checkout, and checkout does not create a new contact for you automatically.
- Your cart for this store must include at least one item, or the link you followed must include at least one product to buy.
- Checkout is generally built and tested for Chrome and Firefox.
Check Out from Your Cart
- From the storefront or your cart, select Checkout.
- On the order details page, enter your payment method and any other details your association asks for, such as shipping or a coupon code.
- Select Next to continue to the review page.
- Review your order on the Review Order page, which reminds you that the order is not complete yet.
- Select Process Order to place the order.
Result
Rhythm processes your order and shows a completion page confirming that your order went through. Your cart for this store is now cleared.
Tip
If you add a new credit or debit card on the order details page, Rhythm selects that card for the current purchase after you save it. When checkout lets you pay with two methods on one order, the second card's fields may not become usable until you finish saving the first payment method.
If checkout asks you to enter a card, it may also ask whether you want to save it for future purchases or use it only for this order.
Tip
On the Review Order page, the Amount Due shown can briefly lag behind a donation you just changed or removed. Advancing to the next page recalculates the actual amount due, including down to $0 for a free item with no donation, so you are not charged the outdated amount shown a moment earlier.
If the Portal checkout donation prompt shows a different amount than the one you selected, review the amount on the next page or in the order confirmation before assuming you were charged the wrong amount.
Tip
If you followed a direct purchase link instead of using your own cart, completing checkout still clears any cart you had separately been building in that store. It also places the order for the items named in the link.
What Happens After You Check Out
After Rhythm places your order, it sends you where your association chose when they set up the checkout page. You may return to the store, go to another page in your Portal, or, less commonly, go to an outside web address. In some cases, you stay on the completion page instead. A successful order does not automatically send you back to the store unless your association's page setup does that.
Limits and Exceptions
- What you can pay with, and whether shipping or a coupon appears, depends on the store's checkout settings, which your association configures. Not every store offers every option.
- A rule the store's category list enforces while you browse is not necessarily re-checked at checkout. If a direct link adds a product outside the categories the store normally shows, you can still buy it.
- Cancelling checkout returns you to the store without placing an order, and nothing is saved from what you entered.
- A free product still goes through the standard checkout flow. There is no faster, one-click path that skips checkout for a $0 item while still recording it as an order.
- A currency you already selected in another purchase flow can carry into this checkout, even on a page where checkout does not show its own currency selector.
If Checkout Won't Let You Continue
- Selecting Next does nothing, or nothing seems to happen. A required field on the order details page is most likely still blank. Review every field on the page, including any that does not look highlighted, before trying again.
- Card fields don't appear after you choose to add a card. Try checkout in Chrome or Firefox. Clear your browser's cache, then try again.
- You see an access-denied or "Unable to Change Address" message while choosing an address. This has been observed when a member's preferred address type is a work address, which leads checkout to also request an organization's address. Having a flowdown address on your contact record has been observed to avoid the error; otherwise, contact your association for help completing the order.
Related Reading
To build what you are buying before you check out, see Build a Shopping Cart. After you place an order, you can review it, pay any remaining balance, and apply a coupon afterward from View, Pay, and Apply a Coupon to Your Orders in the Portal.