Introduction
Configio allows a customer to place an order, opt to pay for it and have that order Split and moved under the Account of another customer. This allows a customer to place orders for their friends, family, or co-workers and enable them to manage the orders under their own Account. Also, it will increase the ability to later market products and services to those customers.
The Split feature is driven by the Participant Email Address field in the Database:
If the Participant Email Address exists, the order is placed under the existing Account.
If the Participant Email Address is new, an Account is created for that Participant, the order is placed under the new Account and a new Participant is created under the existing Account.
Note: The ability for your customers to Split orders is governed by System Configurations. If you have questions about this feature or any hesitation regarding whether it is right for you, please contact us at support@configio.com for assistance.
Example:
Sarah is an Executive Secretary at Tiny Titans, which is a software company that publishes games about virtual monsters who battle each other. They recently released Tiny Titans Outside, and the entire company is extremely busy due to the game’s runaway success. Her boss, the VP of Motivation, wants Sarah to buy expensive gifts for her co-workers, but wants them to be able to handle things like returns themselves, and wants them to be able to place future orders on their own Accounts. Sarah shops at Extravagant Luxuries, which is powered by Configio, so no problem.
Getting Started
There are a series of System Configurations that control how an order may be Split. Log into the Administrative side of your Database, navigate to Settings > Setup > Configuration and search for “split”. Under the Shopping Cart section, there are several important Configurations:
There are two configurations governing the ability for Users to Split an order; one for Administrative Users called "Behavior for splitting orders for admins", the other called "Behavior for splitting orders for shopping cart users", their options are:
Note: The control for Admin Users only affects orders placed via Impersonation. Other Admin order methods, such as Add Item or Roster Upload, do not allow Split orders.
Pro Tip: Do not let these configurations conflict with other configurations. For example, setting the configuration “Require Email to create a Participant” to OFF would conflict with the ability to Split an order because the feature depends on the Participant email address. If you have any hesitation regarding configuring your database to Split orders, please contact us at support@configio.com for assistance.
The three text configurations govern the Split order messaging. All of the messaging appears on the Process order page, which is the last page of Checkout.
Participant verses non-Participant Items
Every Product in your Catalog has “Participant Per” field. Typically, Event Products have a Participant Per = 1 and Merchandise Products have a Participant Per = 0. Conceptually, this is because people participate in things like events, but do not participate in things like merchandise.
Because the Split feature depends on the Participant email address, every Product must have a Participant. Products in the Shopping Cart with a Participant Per value of "0" must be assigned a Participant before the order is completed, this is done on the Process Order page.
The order gets Split to one New Account
An order placed for a Participant whose email address is new to the Database:
- Generates a new Account for that Participant.
- The order is placed under the new Account, so they may manage the order and easily place new orders in the future.
- A new Participant is created under the existing Account, so future purchases for that Participant may be placed under that Account.
Remember our friend Sarah? Her boss wants her to buy Dave the IT Director, a vacation (to be taken in the distant future) and some jewelry (to enjoy now). Sarah logs into her Shopping Cart Account and finds an Event called “Experience Low Earth Orbit”. As the technology is not even commercially available yet, it’s perfect, so she begins her Order. As this is a Single Page Checkout Item, she inputs the Participant information via the Product Detail page, then clicks the Add to Cart button.
Since Sarah also needs to purchase a Merchandise Item, she continues to shop, and finds a Diamond Tiara for Dave’s wife. She also fancies it for herself. Since it is not a Single Page Checkout Item, she can click Add to Cart from the Product List page, then clicks Checkout.
Sarah proceeds to the Process Payment screen. The Split order Configuration in the Extravagant Luxuries Database is set to “Prompt”, so she is presented with a checkbox to Split the order. She chooses to Split the order and the Merchandise Item, which does not already have a Participant assigned, prompts an informative message and Sarah is given the ability to choose a Participant.
Sarah chose Dave as the Participant for the Merchandise Item "Diamond Tiara", because she wants Dave to manage his own order after it is placed. She does not check the “Keep this item on my account” boxes for either Item. She then clicks the Process Order button.
After the Order is placed, Dave is sent an Order Confirmation email and Sarah receives a copy of the email. When Sarah checks her Order History she does not see the order as it has been placed under the new Account for Dave. When Dave gets the Order Confirmation email he can follow the links and login to his newly created Account via instructions.
The Order gets Split into Multiple Accounts
So, you want to Split an Order into multiple accounts... okay, this example order will contain items that will be sent to a new Account, an existing Account and it will contain an item that will stay in the Account of of the person placing the order. This order will also contain Forms and Disclaimers, just to make it interesting.
Sarah received good feedback from her boss and he wants her to continue motivating the employees with purchases from Extravagant Luxuries. Dave is really looking forward to his trip into space, but he really needs a new car. Sarah logs into Extravagant Luxuries and sees that they are selling The Whoosh PDQ, with a top speed of 300 MPH!
Sarah adds the car to her Shopping Cart and just before clicking the Checkout button, she is interrupted by her boss, Steve. He tells Sarah that while perusing the Extravagant Luxuries website, a little something to reward himself for motivating everyone else, sounded good. He has chosen the “Submarine Tour of the Titantic”, which is advertised as a "three hour tour of the World’s most famous shipwreck!”
Steve authorizes the trip for himself. Sarah clicks on the Shopping link to return to the Product List page and finds the Event. Because it is not a Single Page Checkout item, but it is Participant Per = 1, she can click the Add to Cart button and create a Participant tab during checkout.
Note: A Participant may also be created via the Participant page in the Shopping Cart Account section. If the Product is Participant Per = 0 and a Participant entry does not already exist on the Account, then there will be no opportunity to create a Participant during Checkout.
Forms and Disclaimers
There is a Product Form assigned to the Whoosh PDQ. Sarah completes the Form for Dave:
There is a Disclaimer that is assigned to the Submarine Tour. It states that, “This tour will take much longer or shorter than 3 hours.” Sarah informs Steve about the Disclaimer, to which he responds, “Sounds adventurous!” He orders her to sign the Disclaimer on his behalf, which she dutifully does, then clicks the Save & Continue button.
Steve is proud of Sarah, so he tells her to go ahead and buy a little something nice for herself. Remembering the Tiara and not wanting to wait for her boss to change his mind, she returns to the Product List page, finds the Tiara, adds it to her Cart, and clicks Checkout.
As the Checkout Process has been interrupted, she confirms that Steve is still going on the Tour and signs the Disclaimer for him again. She continues to the Process Payment tab, indicates that she gets the Tiara, that the Item needs to stay on her Account and that Dave gets the car. She then clicks the Process Order button.
She goes to her Order History and verifies that the Tiara is on her Account and in her name.
Days later, Steve has not yet returned from the three hour shipwreck tour of the Titatnic. The CEO of Tiny Titans is concerned that the employees are losing their motivation and he asks Sarah to look into it. She calls Extravagant Luxuries and they pull the record of the Disclaimer; indeed it shows that Sarah signed it for Steve, which Sarah recollects.
Note: Because there were other Participants in the Cart and because all Disclaimers on all Products are combined, they include all Participants in the Cart and there are additional entries for the other Participants.
Additional Caveats
Configio has a feature-rich and fully customizable e-commerce platform and some features may require additional work to be fully integrated with the Split feature. If you are using any of these features: Bill My Company, Deposits and Recurring Billing, Team Registration, Ticket Sales or Memberships, have any questions about the feature, or have concerns about how it will integrate with other existing features that you rely on, please contact us at support@configio.com prior to turning on the Split feature in your Database.