Shopping Cart & Checkout

The Cart #

The STOAR cart works for both guests and registered customers.

• Guests — the cart is stored in a browser cookie. No account is required. Guest carts expire after 30 days of inactivity.
• Registered customers — the cart is persisted to the customer's account and survives browser closes, device changes, and logouts. Customer carts expire after 365 days.
• Guest cart merge — when a guest logs in or creates an account, any items in their guest cart are automatically merged into their account cart so nothing is lost.

What you can do in the cart

• Add, remove, and update items — all cart interactions happen via AJAX; the page does not reload.
• Coupon codes — a coupon code field is available in the cart. Valid codes apply discounts immediately and the order summary updates in real time.
• Free shipping progress bar — if your store has a free shipping threshold, a progress bar shows how much more the shopper needs to add to qualify, encouraging larger orders.
• Inline stock warnings — if a cart item's available stock drops below the requested quantity after the item was added (for example, another customer bought the last unit), a warning is shown inline next to that item.
• Order summary sidebar — the cart page shows a live order summary with subtotal, any applied discount, shipping estimate, and total.

Checkout #

Checkout is a multi-step form. Form data is automatically saved to localStorage as the shopper progresses, so if they navigate away and return their entries are restored.

The steps are:

1. Shipping address — enter or select a saved address.
2. Billing address — use the same as shipping or enter a separate address.
3. Shipping method — choose from the available shipping options for the destination.
4. Order notes — optional free-text field for delivery instructions or messages.
5. Payment method — select from the enabled payment gateways.

Before the payment step is processed, STOAR re-validates the entire order: stock levels and prices are checked against the current catalog to ensure nothing has changed since the items were added. If a discrepancy is found (for example, a price change or a variant going out of stock) the shopper is notified before any payment is taken.

Order Success #

After a successful order is placed, the shopper lands on an order confirmation page showing a full order summary. Payment instructions are shown here based on the payment method used:

• Bank transfer — bank account details for making the payment.
• PayID — the PayID address and reference to include.
• Cash on delivery — instructions for paying on receipt.
• Invoice / trade terms — invoice payment terms and due date.

On order success, the cart is cleared and any applied coupon is removed from the session.

Guest Order Lookup #

Guests receive a unique lookup token in their order confirmation email. Using the link in that email, they can view their order status — including current order state, items ordered, and shipping details — at any time without creating an account. The lookup token is specific to that order and does not grant access to any other data.