Checking out

This page walks through checkout, from the Check out button in your cart to the review step where you place your order. You never need an account. You give your name and email, say how you want to get your order, and look it over before you place it.

A bar at the top of each page shows where you are: 1 Cart, 2 Your details, 3 Review and pay. From the later steps, 1 Cart is a link back to your cart if you want to change what you are buying.

On the first two steps, a link at the left of the bar leads back to where you were shopping. When your cart holds items from one fundraiser, it reads Keep shopping and returns to the fundraiser. When the cart holds items from more than one, it reads Keep shopping on the cart and opens the organization’s page, and on your details it reads Back to cart and opens your cart. The review step has no such link, but it has a Back button.

If you open checkout with nothing in your cart, you see “There’s nothing to check out yet. Browse the fundraisers and add something to your cart to get started.” and a Browse fundraisers link to the organization’s page.

The second step is a page titled Almost done. A summary of your order, Your order, sits beside the form, with an Edit link back to the cart. On a phone it is folded above the form, with the number of items and the total, and Show and Hide open and close it. On larger screens, a line under the summary says “Your details go to” and the organization’s name “for this order.” When a fundraiser in your cart offers delivery, it adds that a delivery address is also looked up with the US Census Bureau. The phone view does not show this line.

If you see a box of messages at the top, it is the same re-check described in Ordering from a fundraiser. Anything that can no longer be ordered has been taken out.

The form asks three questions.

• Your name is required.
• Email for your receipt is required, and must look like an email address.
• Phone is optional. When any fundraiser in your cart offers delivery it reads “optional, for delivery day”.

If a required field is empty or the email is not valid, you stay on this page. A line at the top says “One thing needs fixing.” (or “2 things need fixing.”, and so on) and “It’s marked below.”, and the message sits by the field: “Enter your name.”, “Enter an email so we can send your receipt.” or “Enter an email address like name@example.com.”

What you see here depends on the fundraiser. If it set no pickup or delivery options, this section has no choice for you. It shows only an optional Address field. How these options are set up is covered in Fulfillment.

If the fundraiser has one option, it is shown as a fact with nothing to pick: the option’s name, then when and where. If it has more than one, you see How do you want it? with one card per option, and you choose one. A cart with items from two fundraisers asks once for each, with the fundraiser’s name in parentheses. If you skip a choice, the page says “Choose delivery or pickup.”

Each card says when and where, for example “Saturday, Dec 5, 9 am to noon at the fire hall” for a pickup, or “Saturday, Dec 5, 9 am to noon. Your scout brings it to your door.” for a delivery. The word for the person who delivers is the organization’s own word for its sellers when your cart holds one fundraiser, and “seller” when it holds more than one. A pickup with no time or place set says “Pick it up.”

When an option has a last day to order, you see Order by and the date under it. An option that has reached its limit is still listed, marked (full), and cannot be chosen. If none of a fundraiser’s options can be chosen because they have closed, have not opened yet, or are all full, checkout says “Delivery and pickup for” the fundraiser’s name “have closed.”, “aren’t open yet.” or “are full.”, then “Remove its items from your cart to check out.” Use the Edit your cart link beside it to go back to the cart.

If you choose delivery, Delivery address is required and Apartment, suite or unit is optional. The hint under the address says to give the street and number, and your town if it differs from the organization’s, and that it is looked up with the US Census Bureau so your seller can find it. You only need an address for a delivery. If you leave a delivery address empty, the page says “Enter the address to deliver to.”

When you continue, the address is looked up once:

• One match: you go on to the review step, which shows the address in its standard form, with a small typo in the street name corrected.
• A few matches: a window opens with Which address is yours? Choose one and select Use this address, or choose None of these. Deliver to it as I typed it. Edit the address returns you to the field.
• No match, or a street in more than one town: you see “We couldn’t find that address. Check the street and number, or add your town or ZIP.” or “That street is in more than one town. Add your ZIP code.” You can fix the address, or tick Deliver to it as I typed it and continue.
• The lookup is down: you go on to the review step without it.

The delivery pages in Fulfillment describe the lookup from the organization’s side.

If the cart holds only a gift, this section is titled Your gift and says “Nothing to deliver.” and that you will see how to pay on the next step.

If you came through a seller’s link, this section shows the same banner described in Ordering from a fundraiser, and the order is credited to that seller. Select Don’t credit and the seller’s name to stop crediting them. You stay on this page, everything you typed is kept, and the Your seller’s name field described next takes the banner’s place. If not, there is an optional field, Your seller’s name, with this hint: “If a seller asked you to buy, enter their name so” the organization “can credit the sale to them. Not sure? Leave it blank.” The name can be up to 120 characters. As elsewhere, “seller” is the organization’s own word when your cart holds one fundraiser.

Under that is + Add a note for your seller. Select it to open Note for your seller, an optional box with a counter such as “0 of 500 characters”. Select − Never mind the note to fold it away. A note longer than 500 characters is refused with “Keep the note to 500 characters.”

When you are ready, select Continue to review and pay. The line under it, “You choose card or pay later on the next step.”, shows only when your cart can be paid both ways. Which ways of paying a fundraiser accepts is the organization’s choice; see Payment methods.

The third step is titled Check your order. Nothing is charged and no order exists yet. Your details travel with the page, and nothing is lost if you go back.

From the top down, you see:

1. A choice of how to pay, How do you want to pay?, only when the fundraiser takes both card and pay later. The two cards are Pay later (“No card needed today.”) and Pay by card now (“Card details go straight to Stripe.”). Pay later starts selected. When a fundraiser takes only one, there is nothing to choose, and the way to pay is shown by the notes below.
2. When a card payment is possible and selected, a note: “Secure checkout. Card payments are handled by Stripe, and UnitTally and” the organization’s name “never see your card number.”
3. A receipt. Each fundraiser in your cart has its own heading with its name and a count such as “3 items + gift”. Under it, each line shows the product, then “2 × $30.00” and anything you chose, such as a size or extra, and the line’s price. A gift reads “Gift to” and the organization’s name, with “Nothing to deliver”
4. The fee lines and total, described below.
5. For each fundraiser with items and a pickup or delivery choice, a box headed Pickup or Delivery and the day and time. It lists your name, the delivery address or the pickup place, your email, your phone if you gave one, and your note, labeled Note:. When the order is credited to a seller, it ends with Credited to: and the seller’s first name if you came through their link, or with the organization’s word for its sellers and “you named:”, such as “Scout you named:”, and the name you typed. With no seller, there is no such line. When no fundraiser in your cart has a pickup or delivery choice, for example when it holds only a gift, one box headed Your details lists your name, email, phone and note instead, with the credit line inside it. Select Edit to return to your details with everything you typed still filled in.
6. When you can pay later and it is selected, a box headed No payment today with the instructions for paying. Each fundraiser writes its own instructions. If it wrote none, the box says the organization “will tell you how to pay.” See Pay later.

At the bottom, Place order places the order, and Back returns to your details. The small print says “We’ll email your receipt to” your email address, and, when you pay later, “By placing this order you agree to pay” the organization “the total above.” Paying for your order covers what happens next.

The lines at the bottom of the receipt depend on how you pay.

• Pay later: one line, UnitTally fee at $0.00, then the total labeled Pay later. Paying later never carries a UnitTally fee.
• Card, with the box unchecked: no fee lines. The total labeled Pay now is the price of your items. The organization pays the fees out of the sale.
• Card, with the box checked: the lines below, then the total.

The box reads Cover the fees so more of the price reaches the organization’s name. It is unchecked when the page opens, and it appears only where there is a fee to cover: on the card choice, and only when the order has a fee. It does not appear for pay later, so a fundraiser that takes only pay later never shows it.

When you check it, three lines appear in this order: Subtotal, UnitTally fee and Processing fee (estimated). The total labeled Pay now then rises to include both fees. Under them the page says “The processing fee is an estimate — the exact amount depends on the card used.” and “A refund returns the item prices.” and that the organization “decides whether to refund the fees you covered.” When UnitTally waives its fee on an order, it shows UnitTally fee at $0.00 and may still show a processing fee. Switching to pay later hides the box and its lines.

The two fees are separate. UnitTally’s fee follows a published formula, and the processing fee is an estimate based on Stripe’s published rates. Fees and caps explains the formula and why the estimate can differ by a few cents.

If your cart holds items from two fundraisers that have no way of paying in common, for example one takes only card and the other takes only pay later, the cart cannot go to checkout. In place of Check out, a notice reads “These items can’t be checked out together — pay for one fundraiser at a time.”

To go ahead, select Remove on the items of one fundraiser in your cart, then select Check out for the rest. Then add the other fundraiser’s items again and check out a second time.

• Ordering from a fundraiser: finding a fundraiser, filling the cart, and what the cart’s messages mean.
• Paying for your order: paying by card or later, and what happens if a payment does not go through.
• After you order: the confirmation page, the emails, and finding an order later.
• Fees and caps: the fee formula, free transactions, and the cover-the-fees box.
• Payment methods: card, pay later, and who accepts what.
• Fulfillment: how pickup and delivery options, deadlines and limits work.