The checkout process is the last step in the carting workflow and is what tells the system to process the shopping cart, validate the contents of that cart and turn it into an order.
As long as the cart is active and isn’t currently locked or processing, the cart will attempt to be validated and processed.
Validation:
The end user of the cart actually exists
If not, the user will be created for the subscriber
The cart items have recipients assignedsd
Cart items must be purchased for someone
Validation of the items
Ensure the items' required values and edited fields are populated correctly
Ensure the item in the cart is the item that was added to the earlier
Ensure the gift cards aren't being paid for with exchange cards
Validation of the payments
Ensure the payments applied to the cart can actually be used at the subscriber
Ex.: Does the subscriber accept credit cards?
Ex.: Does the subscriber accept American Express?
Validate that the payments and pricing add up
Check that an exchange card isn't purchasing a gift card
Ensure the amount being paid adds up to the cart total amount
Processing
Once validation succeeds, the cart will be locked so that it cannot be modified during processing
If validation fails at any time during the checkout process, the cart will be rolled back to an active state, any processed payments will be voided, and any created items will be removed.
The cart totals will be calculated
Items will be priced correctly with taxes and discounts
Payments will be balanced across the items in the cart if necessary
The total amounts for payments, taxes, items, prices, and discounts will be calculated
The cart will be converted into an order, products will be created (gift cards, etc.), and any notifications (purchase receipts, gift card deliveries, etc.) will be sent.
Once processing has finished (either successfully or not), the cart status will be updated and can be checked via the Get Carts call.
See Cart States for more information on the checkout responses
Using the cart checkout process is fairly straightforward, as there is only 2 calls. The first is to tell the system to begin the checkout process, and the next is to check via the Get Carts call to see if the process completed successfully.
