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Shopper Accounts & Checkout

Shoppers sign in, browse and build a cart on your storefront, then check out on BigCommerce. This page explains that split and what it means for you.

Accounts​

Your storefront uses your BigCommerce customer accounts. There's no second set of shopper credentials to manage.

FlowNotes
RegisterCreates a BigCommerce customer
Sign inAuthenticates against BigCommerce
Forgot and reset passwordEmail sent by BigCommerce
Account homeProfile details, with links to the sections below
Address bookAdd, edit and remove addresses
Order historyOrders and order detail, read from BigCommerce
WishlistFor guests and signed-in shoppers

Existing customers​

Grant channel access before launch

BigCommerce scopes customer accounts to channels. If your store already has customers, they must be granted access to your Evolve channel or they cannot sign in. They'll see their credentials rejected even though the account exists.

Do this before you cut over, not after. BigCommerce documents how to grant channel access to existing customers in bulk; if you're unsure, ask us and we'll walk through it with you.

Sessions and the cart​

Guests can browse and buy without an account, controlled by guestBrowseSite and guestShopping. Both are on by default. Turning guestBrowseSite off makes your whole storefront sign-in only, which is what trade-only stores usually want.

A guest cart is preserved for the visit. When a shopper signs in, their guest cart is merged with any cart already on their account, so nothing is lost by signing in late.

If a session expires while a shopper is on the site, they're returned to a session message rather than a broken page, and can sign in again and continue.

Checkout​

When a shopper selects checkout, they're handed to BigCommerce hosted checkout. They pay there, and BigCommerce confirms the order on its own pages. The shopper comes back to your storefront when they choose to keep shopping.

This is deliberate and it has real advantages, but it does mean a set of things belong to BigCommerce rather than to us.

AspectOwnerWhat that means for you
Payment methodsBigCommerceConfigure gateways and wallets in the BigCommerce admin. Everything BigCommerce supports works.
PCI scopeBigCommerceCard details are never handled by your storefront.
Tax and shipping calculationBigCommerceYour BigCommerce tax and shipping settings apply.
Promo codesBigCommerceShoppers enter discount codes at checkout, not in the cart.
Checkout appearanceBigCommerceStyle it in the BigCommerce admin so the handover doesn't look abrupt.
Purchase analyticsBigCommercePurchase and revenue events fire on BigCommerce's pages. See Analytics & Tags.
Order confirmationBigCommerceThe shopper sees BigCommerce's confirmation page, and the confirmation email is sent by BigCommerce.
Make the handover feel deliberate

Apply your logo and brand colors to the BigCommerce checkout, and say "at checkout" in any promo-code messaging. Both are small jobs and together they stop the transition feeling like a jolt.

Style the confirmation page while you're there. It's the last page of the purchase, so it's the one shoppers remember, and it's worth as much attention as the payment step.

Shipping options, in-store pickup, splitting an order across addresses and saved checkout profiles are all handled by BigCommerce checkout rather than by your storefront. Those steps belong to the checkout, and the checkout belongs to BigCommerce.

Orders​

Order history and order detail on your storefront are read live from BigCommerce, so a shopper sees the same status you do. The confirmation happens on BigCommerce, but the order is on your storefront from then on: a signed-in shopper finds it under order history straight away.

You fulfill, refund, cancel and manage orders in the BigCommerce admin as normal. Nothing about order management moves into your storefront or your Tenant Dashboard.

Wishlist​

Wishlists are on by default, for guests as well as signed-in shoppers. Turning wishlist off removes the wishlist page along with the buttons that lead to it.

See also​