To get started with E-Commerce, reach out to our support team to have it enabled on your Portal. Once E-Commerce has been enabled, you will need to follow these steps to fully configure E-Commerce on your Portal:

Select a Payment Gateway

First you must choose a Payment Gateway, an online service that processes credit card payments for E-Commerce sites and brick and mortar stores.  If you already have a Payment Gateway, check here to ensure that we support it. If you need to obtain a Payment Gateway, you can also check here and view the full list and our client's most popular choices which are marked with an asterisk (*).

There are pros and cons to each Payment Gateway, and you will need to talk with the providers to determine the best option for your organization.

Configure and Test Your Payment Gateway

After selecting your Payment Gateway and setting up a merchant account, you will need to enable and test your Payment Gateway.  Our Payment Gateway setup guide offers configuration guidelines for some of the most popular options:

• Payment Gateway Setup Guide

Once you have configured the Payment Gateway, you should test it. Keep in mind that:

• Most Payment Gateways have a "Testing" mode. Our E-Commerce settings allows you to test your setup (if supported) without spending real money. The rules for testing vary widely between vendors and we strongly recommend you read up on the rules specific to your gateway.
• We recommend that you perform at least one test purchase after the live Gateway is enabled. The easiest way to do this is to set a Course to $1 and add Self Enrollment rules that limit the audience to just yourself. Then you can be 100% sure that everything is ready for your launch.

If you experience any issues during testing, you will need to reach out to the support team at your Payment Gateway.  To reduce any runaround, it is important that you provide their support team with the specific terms or settings used so that they can assist you. You can find these details in the setup guide or you can contact our support team and they will provide you with the details you need.

Configure Absorb's E-Commerce Settings

Once the Payment Gateway account has been configured and your testing has been successful, you will need to modify some information in the Admin Interface before you can begin selling your Courses.

1. Log into the Admin Experience and select the Client Settings button under the Account menu on the right-hand side.
   

   

2. Click E-Commerce from the Client Settings page.
   
3. The E-Commerce Settings modal will open. Here you can modify the data for each of the following aspects of the E-Commerce configuration: Settings, Payment Gateways, Manual Payment Methods, and Checkout Communication.
   

Settings

Under the Settings tab, you can configure how your E-Commerce site will function for Users.

Here, you will be able to configure these options:

Currencies

• Select a default currency.
  • The Currency chosen from this drop-down list defines the Currency type/symbol displayed in the Catalog.
• Additional currencies
  • Select Payment Gateways support the configuration of additional Currencies to streamline the presentation of your store for different regions.
  • For more information about multiple Currencies, review our documentation on the topic:
    • E-Commerce Multi-Currency

Course Purchase

• Single seat enrollment key purchase.
  • This enables customers to have an Enrollment Key generated for a single seat purchase.
• Multi-seat Purchases
  • This allows customers to purchase more than one seat in an Online Course, Instructor Led Course, Course Bundle, or Curriculum by generating an Enrollment Key. If this is disabled, customers can only purchase Courses for themselves.
  • Optionally, it is possible to enable the generation of multiple keys with a single use, rather than one key with multiple uses.
  • For more information about Multi-Seat Purchases review our documentation on the topic:
    • Multi-Seat Purchases
• Course Repurchase
  • This enables Administrators to configure a Repurchase Price for Courses with Re-enrollment enabled.
• Free Courses
  • When this is enabled, all Courses with a price of $0 or the regional equivalent will be displayed as Free in the Catalog and Checkout workflow.

Checkout and Transactions

• Enable express checkout
  • When this is enabled, customers will not be prompted to fill in their shipping and billing information for Transactions where the total of all items in the cart is equal to $0.00. The receipt will display a null value for these fields.
  • If Customer Accounts is enabled along with this feature, then a customer’s saved details will be applied to their receipt instead of a null value.
    
• Billing and shipping information
  • This forces customers to re-enter their billing and shipping information if they cancel their checkout process.
    • This can be helpful if customers are using shared devices.
• Set a purchase limit per transaction
  • This defines the maximum value for a cart that can be processed in a single transaction.
• Terms and Conditions
  • This determines if customers need to accept any Terms and Conditions that have been defined before completing their first purchase.

User Authentication

• Users must be logged in to access shopping cart
  • This determines if customers are required to log into the Portal before they can purchase Course Content. If a customer does not have an account, they will need to create one before they can complete their purchase.
  • When this is enabled, customers will also need to be logged into see Course Previews. If you would like to enable prospective customers to view the Description and Outline for a Course without logging in, this setting needs to be disabled.
• New users are required to validate their email before checking out
  • New customers who sign up via E-Commerce will need to validate their Email Address before logging in.
  • This is independent of the same toggle found under Users in Portal Settings.
• Default Department
  • New customers who complete a purchase will be assigned to the selected Department.
    • Customers with an existing account will not be impacted by this setting.
  • If you have a blended billing model, please ensure you have selected the Department with the correct billing type applied.

Payment Gateways

In the Payment Gateways section, you will define the configuration for your Payment Gateway, as well as the payment methods associated with it.

Under the Payment Gateways section you can configure the following options:

Checkout and Transactions

• Payment Methods
  • Select the payment methods that will be accepted through your Payment Gateway.
• Supported Credit Cards
  • This enables you to select the credit cards that your customers can use when purchasing Courses.
• Payment mode (live/test)
  • This enables you to test the configuration of your Payment Gateway before enabling it for live purchases for your customers.

Gateways

• Payment Gateway
  • This enables you to select the Payment Gateway that will be used to process transactions for your customers.
  • A different set of fields will be displayed for configuring each Payment Gateway. For more information about configuring a Payment Gateway review our documentation:
    
    • Payment Gateway Setup Guide (Replace with Hyperlink)
  • The first time you fill out the fields required to set up a Payment Gateway, you will be able to see them and verify that they are correct. However, once saved, they will be hidden so that no other Admin and/or Absorb employee doing work in your Portal can view these values.

Paypal Express Checkout Hosted Gateway

• Account Email Address
  • The email account associated with your PayPal account needs to be entered to enable your customers to checkout using PayPal.

Store Information

• Store Name
  • This is the store name that is displayed to your customers.
• E-Commerce Subdomain
  • This is the URL that appears during the final step of the checkout process.
• Store Email
  • This email should be set for the point of contact that is used for any transaction issues that may arise between your E-Commerce configuration and your Payment Gateway.
• Postal Code
  • This is the Postal Code which is used for calculating shipping. Although this is not applicable to digital purchases through the LMS, it is required for configuring your Payment Gateway.
• Country
  • The Country that has been selected will be used for calculating tax for purchases.
• State/Province
  • In addition to the Country, this regional information will also be used for calculating taxes for purchases.
• Currency
  • The Currency selected here will be reflected on your checkout page in the price of your items for sale.
• Time Zone
  • The geographical region selected here will be used to represent your local time and date as it is presented to customers.
• Language
  • The Language selected here will be used for the communications displayed to customers during the purchase process.
• International Currency Symbol
  • When this is enabled, the Currencies will be displayed using a three-letter abbreviation, for example USD would appear instead of the $ symbol.
• Customer Accounts
  • This enables you to give your customers the ability to save their payment method and billing details when completing a transaction using a credit card.

Tax Rates

• Automatic Tax Rates
  • This enables you to determine if the Taxes presented to your customers should be calculated automatically based on their region for certain economic zones (Canada, the European Union, and the United States). This automatic tax calculation applies to payments completed using a Credit Card or PayPal.
  • Automatic Tax Rates are determined by the shopping cart service we use and make use of a database that is updated monthly. As such, the Tax Rates by state should be accurate at any given time.
• Additional Tax Rates
  • This enables you to define Tax Rates manually for additional regions and to give you full control over how Tax Rates are calculated for your customers.
  • The following article goes in depth on manual Tax Rate configuration:
    • Setting up Tax Rates

Manual Payment Settings

In the Manual Payment Settings section, you will determine which payment methods are accepted that are not associated with your Payment Gateway.

Under the Manual Payment Settings section you can configure the following options:

Payment

• Manual payment methods
  • Select the payment methods that will be accepted, these payment methods are not processed through your Payment Gateway.
• Billing Address
  • This enables you to require your customers to provide a billing address for purchases completed using a Check, Purchase Order, or Wire Transfer.
• Payment approval for enrollment
  • This enables you to determine if purchased content is accessible before the transaction has been approved:
    
    • Optimistic: Customers will get access to their Courses before the transaction has been approved.
    • Pessimistic: Customers will only get access to their Courses after the transaction has been approved.
• Minimum Non-credit threshold
  • This enables you to determine the minimum value of the cart that is required for a customer to be able to use one of the manual payment methods.

Tax Rates

• This enables you to define Tax Rates that will apply to purchases completed using a manual payment method.
• The following article goes in depth on manual tax rate configuration:
  • Setting up Tax Rates

Checkout Communication

In the Checkout Communication section, you can define messaging that appears throughout the checkout process.

Under the Checkout Communication section you can configure the following options:

• Welcome Banner
  • This enables you to configure a message that appears at the start of the checkout process.
• Confirmation Banner
  • This enables you to configure a message that appears during the account information step of the checkout process.
• Checkout Banner
  • This enables you to configure a message that appears during the payment method selection step of the checkout process.
• Invoice Banner
  • This enables you to configure a message that appears on the invoice following the completion of a transaction.
• Custom Question
  • This enables you to configure a question that gets asked during the account information step of the checkout process.
    • Store Response In
      • Only appears if you enable the Present an additional custom question to customers on the account information step toggle.
      • This enables you to select the custom field that the response to your custom question will be stored in.
      • Only True/False type custom fields can be selected.

FAQS

This section contains specific questions and use cases related to E-Commerce functionality in Absorb. If you have additional questions or concerns related to your use case not addressed in this article, please reach out to your Client Success representative.

How Does Approval Work When E-Commerce is Enabled for a Course?

When a Course has both E-Commerce and Approval enabled, purchasing the Course bypasses the need for Approval. If a Course is purchased, the customer will gain access to the content immediately.