E-commerce

Overview

The e-commerce feature allows you to charge money for your courses. Visitors and members can browse your course catalog, add courses to their shopping cart, and then pay for the courses during the checkout process using PayPal, PayPal Payment Pro, Authorize.net, Stripe, PayuBiz, or PayU Latam as a payment gateway.

To start setting up this feature, navigate to Admin/App center and scroll to the E-commerce section. To install the E-commerce app, you need to request access, so click Request access in the app tile.

In the request pop up, add any additional information in the message area and click Send.

Once Sales has approved the request, you will receive the following message in your portal:

Navigate to the App Center and the E-commerce app tile. Click Install.

On the confirmation popup, click OK. Once installed, click the cog icon.

On the E-commerce Summary screen, click + Enable. Once enabled, click Configure to begin adding payment gateways.

Please note that by default, all administrators have access to e-commerce. To enable/disable access for certain administrators, visit the Users/Administrators area and check/uncheck their "E-commerce access" box. This allows you to control which administrators have access to the Admin/E-commerce area and the E-commerce widget on the Admin dashboard.

If you are using the Organizations feature, you can define per-organization currencies in the organization's E-commerce tab. The prices for items that are associated with that organization are assumed to be in that organization's currency.

By default, it's set to your site currency. To change its currency, click Edit and select the currency.

There are a few things to note:

You cannot mix and match items with different currencies during checkout.
We record the currency of an item during checkout, so if you change the currency of an organization, it doesn't retroactively apply to existing orders for items associated with that organization.
We break out orders by currency in the various e-commerce summary screens.

Configuring e-commerce using PayPal

There are several steps to set up e-commerce using PayPal:

Create a free business account at PayPal;
Enable Instant Payment Notification;
Enable e-commerce by registering your PayPal business account email address.

Each step will be described in detail.

To get a PayPal business account, visit http://www.paypal.com and click the Signup option. Then choose to create a Business account.

Follow the instructions to get your account set up.

Once you have created your PayPal account, you can customize the site that your customers will see during the checkout process. To do this, click "Accept Payments" in the quick links widget.

Click on "PayPal Checkout".

Here you can configure the Payment setup and create an online invoice.

Enable Instant Payment Notification Courses

This step is very important - you must activate "Instant payment notification" so that PayPal sends a message to our site when your customers complete a purchase during checkout. This message allows our site to verify that the order is complete and provide access to the purchased courses to your customer.

To do this, go to Profile and click Account Settings.

Then go to "Notifications" and click "Update" on the line that says “Instant payment notifications”.

Then click "Choose IPN Settings".

Enter the notification URL https://www.matrixlms.com/IPN, check the "Receive IPN messages" option, and click Save. Note that it's "https", not "http". Here's what the IPN configuration settings should look like:

Please note that if you are using matrixlms.eu you have to enter the https://www.matrixlms.eu/IPN notification URL.

Please note that if you are using matrixlms.com.au you have to enter the https://www.matrixlms.com.au/IPN notification URL.

Now your PayPal account is fully configured and ready to accept orders from our platform.

Enabling e-commerce using PayPal

To enable e-commerce, click Admin/E-commerce/Configure/Payment gateway, then click Add.

A pop-up will open where you can select PayPal.

Enter the email address associated with your PayPal business account, then click Save.

To disable it at any time, unselect the checkbox under "Enable?".

The super admin can lock the settings for a gateway. When locked, only the super admin can edit the gateway, see its settings, and/or unlock it. Please note that by default, a payment gateway's settings are unlocked, and any admin can edit/see them.

To change the currency, click Edit under "Default currency".

Select the currency, then click Save.

Configuring e-commerce using PayPal Payments Pro

To set up e-commerce using PayPal Payments Pro as a payment gateway, you need to have an account. After you create your account go to Admin/E-commerce/Configure/Payment gateway, then click Add.

A pop-up will open where you can select PayPal Payments Pro.

Enter the email address associated with your PayPal Payments Pro account, API username, API password, and Signature, then click Save.

To change the currency, click Edit under "Default currency".

Select the currency, then click Save.

Configuring e-commerce using Authorize.net

To set up e-commerce using Authorize.net as a payment gateway, you need to have an account. Before you set up the Authorized.net integration on your site, go to your Authorize.net account and visit the Account / Response/Receipt URLs area.

Click Edit "Default Receipt URL".

Enter the URL, then click Submit. Please note that the "Default Receipt URL" should be your MATRIX site URL followed by "/authorize_net/relay_response". For example: https://yoursite.matrixlms.com/authorize_net/relay_response

After you finished setting up your account, go to Admin/E-commerce/Configure/Payment gateway, then click Add.

A pop-up will open where you can select Authorize.net.

Enter the email address associated with your Authorize.net account, your transaction key, and configure your settings. You can disable address verification under "Verify address". If you disable this option, the shopping cart will not include fields for a billing address, resulting in a quicker checkout experience.

To require the CVV during the checkout process, enable "Require CVV".

To change the currency, click Edit under "Default currency".

Select the currency, then click Save.

Configuring e-commerce using Stripe

To set up e-commerce using Stripe as a payment gateway, you need to have a Stripe account. After you create your account, go to Admin/E-commerce/Configure/Payment gateway, then click Add.

A pop-up will open where you can select StripeSCA.

Enter your publishable key and your secret key, then click "Generate endpoint secret".

You can disable address verification by selecting "No" under Verify address. If you disable this option, the shopping cart will not include fields for a billing address, resulting in a quicker checkout experience. After configuring your settings, click Save.

After StripeSca is enabled, you can choose to demigrate back to Stripe. Please note that the SCA Compliance in Europe, which requires a second form of authentication during credit card processing, is in effect since September 14, 2019. This affects businesses, consumers, and banks operating in Europe. Please DON'T migrate back to Stripe if you are affected because credit card payments will fail.

If you configured the e-commerce feature in the past using Stripe, you can choose to migrate to StripSCA by clicking the "Migrate to Stripe SCA" button. We strongly recommend migrating even if you don't operate in Europe, as banks all over the world (including the United States) are starting to implement and require 3D Secure Authentication.

To change the currency, click Edit under "Default currency".

Select the currency, then click Save.

Configuring e-commerce using PayUbiz

To set up e-commerce using PayUbiz as a payment gateway, you need to have an account. After you create your account, go to Admin/E-commerce/Configure/Payment gateway, then click Add.

A pop-up will open where you can select PayUbiz.

Enter your Merchant key and your Salt, then click Save.

To change the currency, click Edit under "Default currency".

Select the currency, then click Save.

Configuring e-commerce using PayU Latam

To set up e-commerce using PayU Latam as a payment gateway, you need to have an account. Please note that if your site uses a custom domain and has an SSL certificate, then you need to send an email to sac@payulatam.com to add your domain to their bank of certificates.

After you create your account, go to Admin/E-commerce/Configure/Payment gateway, then click Add.

A pop-up will open where you can select PayU Latam.

Enter your Account ID, Merchant ID, and API key, then click Save.

To change the currency, click Edit under "Default currency".

Select the currency, then click Save.

Configuring e-commerce using PagSeguro

To set up e-commerce using PagSeguro as a payment gateway, you need to have an account. After you create your account, go to Admin/E-commerce/Configure/Payment gateway, then click Add.

A pop-up will open where you can select PagSeguro.

Enter your email, and token then click Save.

To change the currency, click Edit under "Default currency".

Select the currency, then click Save.

Configuring e-commerce using Flywire

To configure e-commerce with Flywire as a payment gateway, you must first have a Flywire account. Then, navigate to Admin/E-commerce/Payment gateway and click Add.

On the popup screen, select Flywire.

Enter your Flywire recipient code and select the currency for the account. Click Save.

To disable Flywire at any time, unselect the checkbox under "Enable?".

To change the currency, click Edit under "Default currency".

Select the currency, then click Save.

Configuring e-commerce using YooMoney

To enable e-commerce, click Admin/E-commerce/Configure/Payment gateway, then click Add.

A pop-up will open where you can select YooMoney.

Enter your YooMoney Shop ID, API Key, Subaccount's ID, and Payment subject. Click Save.

To disable it at any time, unselect the checkbox under "Enable?".

Configuring e-commerce using Mercado Pago

To configure e-commerce with Mercado Pago as a payment gateway, you must first have a Mercado Pago account. Then, navigate to Admin/E-commerce/Payment gateway and click Add.

A pop-up will open where you can select Mercado Pago.

Enter your public key, access token and account's currency, then click Save.

To disable it at any time, unselect the checkbox under "Enable?".

Configuring e-commerce using Conekta

To configure e-commerce with Conekta as a payment gateway, you must first have a Conekta account. Then, navigate to Admin/E-commerce/Payment gateway and click Add.

A pop-up will open where you can select Conekta.

Enter your public and private keys, then click Save.

To disable it at any time, unselect the checkbox under "Enable?".

Note: During checkout using Conekta, the fields for first name, last name, email, and phone number are mandatory. If these are empty, the user will receive an error message.

Configuring e-commerce using purchase orders

To set up e-commerce using purchase orders as a payment gateway, go to Admin/E-commerce/Configure/Payment gateway, then click Add.

A pop-up will open where you can select "Purchase order".

When you select "Purchase order", you will be taken automatically to its configuration area. Here you can add "approvers" who are notified when a customer purchases an item using a PO by clicking Add.

Select the administrators from the people picker and click Save.

You can delete approvers by selecting them and clicking Remove.

You can also customize the message that the customer sees during checkout by clicking "Edit" in the "Payment confirmation" area.

Enter your message, then click Save.

After configuring your settings, click the "All payment gateways button".

To change the currency, click Edit under "Default currency".

Select the currency, then click Save.

Configuring e-commerce using multiple payment gateways

You can configure the e-commerce feature to use multiple payment gateways. To enable the gateways you want to use on your site, go to Admin/E-commerce/Configure/Payment gateway, then click Add.

A pop-up will open where you can enable one or more payment gateways. For example, you could use Stripe for processing credit cards but still support payments via Paypal as well.

After you registered and configured the gateways you want to use, they will be listed in the Admin/E-commerce/Configure/Payment gateways area. If you want to add more payment gateways, click Add in the upper-left corner.

If you have more than one gateway enabled, then one of them can be selected for processing credit cards by default.

You can change gateway settings by clicking the icon, and you can enable/disable them via the corresponding checkbox under "Enable?".

To remove payment gateways, select them and click Delete.

To change the currency, click Edit under "Default currency".

Select the currency, then click Save.

If the default currency isn't supported by one of the payment gateways, it will be indicated under "Support default currency?".

Notifications

In the Admin/Ecommerce/Configure/Notifications area, you can set up multiple notifications.

Rules

In the Admin/E-commerce/Configure/Rules area, you can add actions that are performed when users abandon their shopping cart.

We define an abandoned cart as one where:

we know the identity of the user (i.e., a visitor's name and email if required, or a logged-in user)
they've added some items to the cart
they've ticked any required policy checkboxes
they do not click Purchase, or they click Purchase but do not complete the purchase process

To add an action, click on Add.

A pop-up will open where you can choose to send a custom notification, invoke an API, or invoke an xAPI.

If you select "Custom notification", it can be configured to be triggered after X amount of time, and you can use the @order_items and @order_items_with_link variables in the content of the message to give more information to users about the courses in their abandoned cart. For example, you could send a message to the user with help on how to complete the purchase or provide them with an email to contact for help.

If you add the "Order item" filter to the action, then you can search and select courses for which the action will apply. If you choose multiple courses, the action will apply to abandoned carts that contain at least one of the courses from the filter.

You can add multiple abandoned cart actions. To edit existing actions, click their icon, and if you want to delete them, click on under Remove.

If the cart becomes no longer abandoned, those actions are automatically suppressed.

Customize

Here you can set the introduction for the shopping cart, the introduction for the Purchases area of the users, and you can enable invoice templates for your site.

To set an introduction for your shopping cart, visit the Customize tab, then click Add under Cart. Enter the introduction, then click Save.

Users will see the introduction in their shopping cart.

To set the introduction for the users' Purchases area, click add under Purchases.

To enable invoice templates for your site, click on the "Enable PDF invoices" button.

After enabling invoice templates for your site, you can select a standard invoice with tax if you enabled the Tax feature using VAT or GST, or you can select a standard invoice without tax.

To preview the invoice, click on its icon.

If you want to create your own PDF invoice, you can download a copy of one of ours to start with by clicking on its name, then you can customize it.

To add your custom PDF invoice to the site, click on "Add custom".

Here is displayed the list of fields you can include in the custom PDF invoice template. We also support custom account fields. For example, if you have a custom field called "Company", you can use the attribute "Company" in your custom PDF invoice. Please note that the invoice template must be a PDF form.

Click Upload to add the custom PDF invoice template.

When the upload is finished, click Save.

To delete your custom invoice template, click on its icon.

To disable invoice templates for your site, click on the "Disable PDF templates" button.

Courses

In the Items area of the Summary page, you can click on courses o see all the courses that have a defined price.

Here you can select the courses and Publish/Unpublish them in the Course catalog. To set the price for a course, visit its Admin/Configure/E-commerce area.

Paths

In the Items area of the Summary page, you can click on Paths to see all the learning paths that have a defined price.

Here you can select the paths and Publish/Unpublish them in the Course catalog. To set the price for a learning path, visit its Admin/Configure/E-commerce area.

Bundles

You can combine two or more courses into a bundle and sell them as a package. Soon we'll add support for PDFs, videos, and other files to sell as bundles. To see your bundles, click Bundles in the Items area of the Summary page.

To add a new bundle, click Add.

Add a name for the bundle, then click Save.

The created bundle is not published by default in the Catalog. To publish the bundle, click Publish in the Admin section.

To add courses to the bundle, click on Add item.

Then select the items from the list and click Submit. Note that you can add courses and digital media as bundle items.

To delete an item from the bundle, select it, then click Delete.

To configure the bundle, click Admin/Configure.

In the Basics tab, you can set a short and long description for the bundle that will show up in the catalog. To add the descriptions, click on Edit. Enter the descriptions, then click Save.

Also here, you can associate the bundle with an organization. If it is set, this organization setting applies to visibility, just like in the case of courses and paths. By default, bundles are associated with the default organization.

In the Catalog tab, you can select whether you want to publish the bundle in the catalog, display a contact option, include the descriptions, make the bundle a featured item in the Catalog, and more.

In the E-commerce tab, you can set the price for the bundle, and you can define actions that are automatically performed when the bundle is purchased.

To add a price, click on "Edit price" and enter the price, then click Save. You can also add coupons for bundles.

To define an action for the bundle, click on Add under Purchase actions.

Then select the action from the list.

This is how a bundle looks in the course catalog.

If you click on the Items tab, you will see the list of items included in the bundle.

The checkout process is the same for buying individual courses and bundles, and it's explained lower on this page. Users can checkout using Stripe, PayPal, PayPal Payments Pro, PayUbiz, and Authorize.net as payment gateways. When users purchase a bundle, it doesn't automatically enroll users in all its courses. After the payment is done, users are returned to their portal, where they can see the purchased items.

To start a course from the bundle, click on the link of the course.

Then click on the Enroll button.

Subscription plans

You can create subscription plans comprised of one or more courses and digital media. Once the subscription plans are created, you can sell them through the Catalog. To see your subscription plans, click Subscriptions on the Summary page.

To add subscription plans, click Add.

Enter the name of the subscription plan, then click Save.

The created subscription is not published by default in the Catalog. To publish the subscription, click Publish in the Admin section.

After the subscription plan is created, you can add courses and digital media to it. If you add digital media to the subscription, learners will be able to access and download any digital media you included until the subscription is canceled. To start adding items, click on Add item.

You can filter items by type and name.

Select the items from the list, then click Submit.

To delete an item from the subscription plan, select it, then click Delete.

To configure the subscription plan, click Admin/Configure.

In the Basics tab, you can set a short and long description that will show up in the catalog. To add the descriptions, click on Edit. Enter the descriptions, then click Save.

Also here, you can associate the subscription plan with an organization. If it is set, this organization setting applies to visibility, just like in the case of courses and paths. By default, subscription plans are associated with the default organization.

In the Catalog tab, you can select whether you want to publish the subscription plan in the Catalog, include the descriptions, to make the plan a featured item in the Catalog, and more.

In the E-commerce tab, you can set the price for the subscription plan, and you can select the billing period, which can be monthly or yearly.

Note that once a subscription plan has purchases, the billing period can't be changed.

You can change the price of a subscription and then optionally apply it to the existing purchases. Click on "Edit price", add the new price, then click Save.

A message will be displayed at the top of the page, and you will see the list of existing subscriptions where you can apply the change to the ones you want. Please note that any previous coupons are NOT applied - the new price is applied to those existing subscriptions as-is.

Also here, you can define discount codes for the subscription plan, and you can add actions that are automatically performed when the subscription plan is purchased or when it is canceled.

To define a purchase action for the subscription plan, click on Add under Purchase actions.

Then select the action from the list.

To define a cancel action for the subscription plan, click on Add under Cancel actions.

Then select the action from the list.

Subscription plans are visible in the Catalog, just like courses and bundles.

To see the items in the subscription plan, click on its tile. Here you can subscribe to the plan by clicking the Subscribe button.

The checkout process is the same for buying individual courses, bundles, and subscription plans, and it's explained lower below. Currently, we only support Stripe as a payment gateway for subscriptions.

Note that you cannot mix subscriptions with one-time purchases. If you try to add a one-time purchase to a cart containing a subscription, you'll be prompted if you want to replace the subscription with a one-time purchase.

After checkout, the learner will see a page with the subscription.

To see the details of the subscription plan, click on its name. Here you can cancel the subscription, and you can edit your payment details.

To visit an item from the subscription plan, click on its tyle.

To enroll in the course, click on Enroll from the left bar.

To download the digital media from the subscription plan, click on Download from the left bar.

If the learner has any subscriptions, they will be listed in the right bar of their dashboard.

Administrators can see a list of all subscriptions purchased via Admin/E-commerce/Subscriptions.

To see the details of a subscription, click on its name and go to the Purchases tab. Here you can see the active, past due, and canceled subscriptions.

To see the details of a subscription, click its icon.

Here you can obtain a PDF receipt of the payment, you can issue a refund, and you can cancel active and past-due subscriptions.

When users cancel a subscription plan, they are no longer billed, and at the end of the billing period, they lose access to the items in their subscription. If the subscription plan has courses, then users will be deactivated from them. If you want to prevent deactivated users from accessing the courses, make sure to disable the “Allow deactivated learners to access course” option via the Admin/Configure/Deactivation area of the course.

If users fail to pay for the subscription plan, then we send a "past due" warning. In the case of subscriptions with a monthly billing period, the past due" warning is sent two days after the payment was due and it wasn’t received. If they haven't paid within 30 days after the payment was due, we cancel their subscription plan. In the case of subscriptions with a yearly billing period, the past due" warning is sent 15 days after the payment was due and it wasn’t received. If they haven't paid within two months after the payment was due, we cancel their subscription plan.

Note that if a payment has failed, the retries to process the payment are performed by Stripe, not your site. By default, Stripe uses smart retries. You can check these settings in your Stripe account via Settings/Subscription, and emails/Manage failed payments. We recommend that you use smart retries to cover the 30 days before the subscription is automatically canceled.

Please also make sure that you set "Mark the subscription as unpaid" if all retries for a payment fail since your platform automatically cancels the unpaid subscription after 30 days both on the platform and Stripe.

You have the option to enable notifications for past-due subscription payments. You will receive these notifications at the same time when the customer receives the past-due warning, 2 days after the subscription payment was due for monthly billing and 15 days after the payment was due for yearly billing. To enable the notification, go to Admin/E-commerce/Configure/Notifications and enable "Receive notification of past-due subscription payments." under Notifications.

Selling Digital media

You can sell individual digital media such as video, audio, PDFs, and more via our course catalog, just as you would sell courses. To see all your digital media, click Digital media on the Summary page.

To add your files, click Add.

Add a name, then click Save.

The created digital media is not published by default in the Catalog. To publish it, click Publish in the Admin section.

You can now start adding files. Click on "Upload content".

Give the file a name, add a description, and select a library. Then click Save.

You will see the added file in the Overview area. To set up options for your digital media, go to Admin/Configure.

In the Basics tab, you can edit the name, description and change the picture.

Also here, you can associate digital media with an organization. If it is set, this organization setting applies to visibility, just like in the case of courses and paths. By default, digital media is associated with the default organization.

In the Catalog tab, you can publish the media in the catalog, choose the tile color, make it a featured item in the Catalog, and select the catalog category. Under the Visibility tab, you can set up conditions for what users will be able to see the media in the catalog.

In the E-commerce tab, you can set up the price for the digital media and add discount coupons.

Digital media items are visible in the catalog in the same way as courses, bundles, and subscriptions. The checkout process is the same for buying individual courses, bundles, and subscription plans, and it's explained lower on the page.

Bulk discounts

You can now add one or more bulk discount rules that apply to the entire shopping cart. To do this, click Admin/E-commerce/Configure/Bulk discounts, then click Add.

There are two options for setting bulk discounts:

Discount based on quantity - which gives a discount based on the number of items ordered.

Discount based on the amount - which gives a discount based on the total cost of items ordered.

Once you've set up your discounts, you will see them listed as below. To edit the discounts, click the Edit icon. To delete a discount, select it from the list, then click Delete.

We don't currently have an option for displaying the bulk discount options to a user in the shopping cart or in the course catalog because we assumed that most customers would want to use their own marketing voice when describing the discounts. You can add a custom introduction to the shopping cart via Admin/E-commerce//Configure/Customize and a custom introduction to the course catalog via Admin/Catalog/Introduction.

The shopping cart displays bulk discounts like this, and we will always apply the largest bulk discount rule that matches the shopping cart contents.

Note that PayPal does not allow item discounts and bulk discounts at the same time, so if you add any bulk discounts while using PayPal, item discounts will be disabled, and we automatically display a warning of this effect in Admin/E-commerce/Configure/Bulk discounts.

Tax

When selling online courses to a global audience through e-commerce, there are certain tax requirements that must be considered. It is important to know and understand the tax laws and regulations not only in your own country but also in the countries where your customers are located. Some of the key tax considerations include understanding the different types of taxes that may apply (such as sales tax, value-added tax, and goods and services tax), determining where you have tax obligations based on your business and customer location, and registering for and collecting the appropriate taxes.

CYPHER Learning supports several options to solve multiple tax considerations, which help you stay compliant with laws and regulations. Our LMS supports GST (Goods and Services Tax), VST (Value added Sales Tax), and integrations with third party tax software like TaxJar, which can help you calculate these taxes for you.

GST and VST are both types of consumption taxes that are applied to the sale of goods and services. The main difference between the two is that GST is typically used in countries like Canada, Australia, and India, while VST is used in countries like the European Union.

TaxJar is a software platform that helps businesses automate their sales tax compliance. TaxJar can calculate the correct amount of sales tax due for each transaction, provide businesses with reports and filing instructions, and integrate with various e-commerce platforms and marketplaces. TaxJar, you can automatically calculate the correct amount of GST and/or VST for each transaction based on the customer's location and the product's taxability. TaxJar also provides real-time sales tax rates and updates, so you don't have to worry about keeping up with tax changes and regulations.

There are a few things to consider before using TaxJar.

Pros:

Sales Tax Automation: TaxJar automates the sales tax process, making it easier and faster for businesses to calculate sales tax, manage exemptions, file returns, and stay compliant with tax laws.
Integrations: TaxJar integrates with CYPHER LMS as well as other technologies you may have within your business.
Real-time Tax Rates: TaxJar provides real-time tax rates and updates, ensuring that you always have the most accurate tax information for your business.

Cons:

To enable taxes within MATRIX:

In the Admin/E-commerce/Configure/Tax tab, you can enable taxes. Note that we plan on supporting additional tax systems in the future.

TaxJar

TaxJar is a sales tax automation platform that calculates sales tax based on the customer’s country, city, and zip code. The country, city, and zip code are the minimum required parameters for obtaining the appropriate tax rate from TaxJar's API. If more parameters like street (Address line 1), state, and others are given, the more accurate the tax rate is. Tax data is applied in real time, therefore providing customers with accurate and reliable tax information.

Note: When TaxJar is installed, you will not be able see other taxes, such as VAT and GST, under Admin/eCommerce/Tax.

To begin using TaxJar in your courses, you must first install the app from the App Center. From the left navigation bar, click Admin and then App Center.

Navigate to the search field on the right side of the screen. Select the checkbox for “E-commerce”.

Find the TaxJar app and click Install.

Click the gear icon to configure the app.

The Tax Configure page opens. Click Edit.

The Edit TaxJar API Key popup opens. Enter your TaxJar API Key.

To locate your TaxJar API Key, open your TaxJar account and click the Account dropdown in the upper right hand corner. Click TaxJar API.

On the TaxJar API page, there are two available tokens: Live and Sandbox. Copy the Live API key and enter it into the TaxJar API Key field in MATRIX.

You can select to display the tax cost in your course catalog or disable it.

If enabled, courses will appear in the course catalog with the final price displayed, which includes all taxes. The "incl. Tax" indicates that all applicable taxes have been calculated into the final price.

When you finish entering your credentials, click Validate API Key. You will receive an alert in the same popup when the API key has been verified successfully or if it is an invalid key.

Purchasing Courses

To purchase a course, click Catalog from the left navigation bar.

Navigate to the course you wish to purchase and click Purchase.

The course is then added to your shopping cart. You can enter your credit card information and click Purchase to proceed, or click Continue to shop to finish shopping.

Once you click Purchase, you will see the course listed in the Purchases section of your user profile. Click More details to see the order details and to download a PDF of the invoice.

Reports

You can run sales tax reports at any time from your TaxJar account. For more information, visit https://www.taxjar.com/product/reports.

Avalara

Avalara is a tax calculation solution that calculates sales tax, VAT (Value Added Tax), and GST (Goods and Services Tax). It also provides global tax calculation and compliance for goods that are transported across international borders that covers over 190 countries. Avalara integrates with accounting, CRM, POS, and shopping cart systems by providing over 1200 partner integrations.

To begin using Avalara, it must first be installed from the App Center. Navigate to the App Center by clicking Admin and then App Center.

In the App Center, either select E-commerce from the Search Categories and enter “Avalara” into the Search Phrase field.

In the Avalara tile, click Install.

Once installed, click the cog icon in the Avalara tile.

On the Edit Avalara popup screen, enter the proper credentials in each field: User name, Password, and Company code. When finished, click Submit.

Important Notes

There are a few important notes to keep in mind when utilizing the Avalara app:

Currently the Avalara app only works with U.S. locations.
The tax rate is calculated based on the buyer’s street address, city, state, zip, and country listed in their profile. The tax rate is retrieved from the Avalara API based on these parameters.
The school/organization portal needs to have a U.S. address in their account for the following fields: Address line 1, City, State, Zip, and Country.
Street address, city, state, zip, and country are the minimum required parameters for obtaining the correct tax rate/tax amount from the Avalara API.

Purchasing Courses

To purchase a course, click Catalog from the left navigation bar.

Navigate to the course you wish to purchase and click Purchase for $.

The course is then added to your shopping cart. The tax is automatically calculated in the cart for review.

Continue purchasing the course as usual.

VAT

To enable VAT support, click the checkbox.

After enabling VAT support, you will see a list of the current tax rates for the EU countries. Note that we are not currently automatically keeping this information up-to-date, so if the rates change, you are responsible for entering the new values.

To enter your "Taxpayer ID" and/or edit the current tax rates, click the Edit button.

Enter your taxpayer ID and/or change the tax rates. If you want to allow items to be tax-exempt, click the appropriate checkbox then click Submit.

If you enabled the "Allow items to be tax-exempt" option, then in the items Admin/Configure/E-commerce area, you can enable the item to be tax-exempt.

You can reset the tax rates to the default values by clicking the Reset button.

During checkout, the account's "Country" field is used to calculate and display the tax.

If you have not enabled the "Country" field, then when the user clicks Purchase, a popup is displayed asking the user's country for tax purposes.

We highly recommend that you enable the Country field via Admin/Accounts/Fields if you're going to charge VAT in order to streamline the checkout experience.

GST

Under the Tax tab, you can enable GST for Australia. To enable GST support, click the checkbox.

After GST support is enabled, click Edit to enter your details.

Enter your "Tax ID name" and "Tax payer ID", set the rate of the tax, and enable it to show GST in the Catalog.

Also here, you can choose to restrict GST to a single country by selecting it from the dropdown. By default, GST is applied to all countries.

If the site is configured to charge GST only for users in a particular country, in the checkout process, until the "Country" account field is filled in with that country, the site won't apply the GST. We highly recommend that you enable the Country field via Admin/Accounts/Fields otherwise, this option won't work.

For example, if you configure GST only for Australia, then the site only adds the GST to the cart if the visitor selects Australia as the country on the sign-up form.

If the user enters any other country, the GST won't be displayed.

If you enable the "Display in catalog" option for GST, then in the Course catalog, all the prices will include GST.

If you have catalog items that are tax-exempt, go to their Admin/Configure/E-commerce area and enable the "Tax-exempt" option.

Coupons

To add a coupon go to Admin/E-commerce/Configure/Coupons and click on Add.

A pop-up will open where you can configure the details of the coupon. Enter the name of the coupon, the maximum number of uses, and which is the total number of times a coupon can be used across all users.

If you want a user to apply the coupon to a single order, then click the "Once per user" checkbox. Please note that a "single order" means the collection of items in a checkout cart. If you select the "Once per user" option, the coupon is applied to a single shopping cart checkout, and it is applied to the whole shopping cart, not just to an item in that shopping cart.

Set the amount of the discount, which can be a fixed amount or a percent. If you want to set a validity period for the coupon, click the "Enable time" checkbox and set the begin and end date of the coupon's validity. Please note that you can configure a coupon to apply its discount to only the first payment of a subscription plan.

After you entered all the details, click Save. When you create a coupon, it can, by default, be used by anyone to purchase any course. Note that if you don't enter a coupon code, all your courses will be discounted.

If you created multiple coupons, you can easily find them by clicking the search icon. Here you can search coupons by name and code.

After the coupon is saved, you can always change its details by clicking on its Edit icon. To see the details of a coupon, click on its Details icon.

In the Items tab, you can specify the courses, bundles, and subscriptions where the coupon can be applied. By default, the coupon is applied to all the courses.

To add a selection of courses/bundles/subscriptions, click on Add under the corresponding section. After you made the selection click on Submit.

You can override the coupon's discount type and the amount for a particular item by clicking on the Edit icon.

The Scope tab allows you to specify who can use the coupon. By default, the coupon can be used by all users.

Here you can restrict the coupon to be used by specific users, groups, and/or organizations.

In the Used tab, you can see the users who used the coupon when purchasing an item from the Catalog.

In the Configuration area of the E-commerce Summary page, you can see an overview of the current settings.

From the Configuration area, you can quickly access each area by clicking on its link.

Setting prices for courses

Once e-commerce has been enabled, you can specify prices and discounts with coupons for any course.

Setting prices

To set a price for a course, go to the course, then click Admin/Configure and edit the associated fields in the E-commerce section.

Enter the price for the course, then click Save.

Please note that adding a $0 price triggers E-commerce and thereby circumvents the "Access Code Required" feature so users can enroll for free and without an access code.

Adding purchase actions

To define an action for the class, click on Add under Purchase actions.

A pop-up will open with the available actions.

Adding coupons

After the price is set, coupons become available. To add a coupon for the course, click on Add under Coupons.

A pop-up will open where you can configure the details of the coupon. A coupon code is given by default, and it can be personalized. Enter the details of the coupon then click save.

Note that if you enter a coupon but no coupon code, the course's price is discounted for all customers by the specified amount. If you enter a coupon and a coupon code, a customer will only get the discount if they enter the coupon code via the shopping cart before they checkout.

Publishing the course catalog to the portal

If you want visitors to be able to browse your course catalog and purchase items, click Admin/Portal. Then enable the corresponding box in the Portal Pages section.

To see your course catalog, hover over the Courses tab and then click Catalog or click the Catalog button on the Dashboard.

To see the courses in a particular category, click on the category.

To see the details of a particular course, click on it. If the courses have a price, you will see the Purchase option. To see more options for configuring the course catalog, click here.

Shopping and checkout experience

When visitors visit your portal, they can click on Catalog and browse your courses.

Visitors can add classes to their shopping cart by clicking the Purchase button.

To make the Purchase button more noticeable, you can change its color via the "Miscellaneous" section of the theme editor.

A more colorful button is easier to notice, and it usually has a higher click-through rate.

After the item is placed in the cart, visitors can use their coupon codes by clicking on "Apply Coupon".

The user can enter more than one coupon code. If this occurs, we apply all coupons and automatically select the best discount for that user.

After the user enters the code, the amount of the discount will be displayed in the cart.

If visitors already have an account, they can click "Log in" to finish the checkout process.

If the visitor doesn't have an account, then the form needs to be filled out with the visitor's data to create a learner account in order to complete the purchase.

A customer can continue to add courses to their shopping cart until it's time to check out.

PayPal

Depending on the payment gateway that is set up, the checkout experience might be different. For example, if you have set up PayPal, users are given instructions about the final PayPal checkout process and prompted to continue or cancel.

If they click Continue, they are redirected to the PayPal site, where they can pay with a credit card or a PayPal account.

PayPal Payments Pro

If you have PayPal Payments Pro set as a payment gateway, you can choose from two payment methods.

If you choose to pay with a credit card, the payment is made via a form on the portal. Enter your payment details, then click Purchase.

If you choose to pay with PayPal, you will be redirected to your PayPal account to complete your purchase.

Authorize.net

If you have Authorize.net set as a payment gateway, the payment is made via a form on the portal. Enter the required details and click Purchase.

Stripe

If you have Stripe set as a payment gateway, the payment is made via a form rather than the Stripe pop-up. Visitors will have to fill in the form with their payment details, click Purchase.

PayUbiz

If you have PayUbiz set as a payment gateway, the payment can be made via a form on our portal or via PayUbiz. Visitors will have to select if they want to pay with a credit card or through PayUbiz. If they pay by card, they enter the detail of the card, then click purchase.

To use PayUbiz, they have to click the "Pay with PayUbiz button".

PayU Latam

If you have set up PayU Latam as your payment gateway, users have to click "Pay with PayU". The visitors will be redirected to the PayU Latam site, where they can finish the checkout process.

PagSeguro

If you have PagSeguro set as a payment gateway, the payment is made via a form on the portal. Enter the required details and click Purchase.

Flywire

If you have set up Flywire as your payment gateway, users have to click "Checkout with Flywire". The visitors will be redirected to the Flywire site, where they can finish the checkout process. Please note that when using Flywire as a payment gateway, users must enter their first and last name, street address, city, phone number, country, and email address.

YooMoney

If you have set up YooMoney as your payment gateway, users have to click "Checkout via YooMoney".

A pop-up will open where visitors can select between the bank card payment and the YooMoney Wallet or link card options.

Purchase order

If you have set up Purchase order as your payment gateway, in the checkout process, users have to fill in the form and then click the "Pay using purchase order" button.

A pop-up will open with a confirmation message.

When the user clicks "Confirm purchase", the purchase approvers are notified that there's a new purchase order for them to approve. They can see the list of pending orders by clicking the link in the notification.

When the payment is approved, the customer receives a notification.

Multiple payment gateways

If you have more than one gateway enabled, then during the checkout process, the ones that are not selected as processing credit cards by default are listed below the credit card area. For example, if you select Stripe for credit card processing and you also add PayPal, you will be able to finish the purchase using your credit card, or you can use PayPal to finish the checkout process.

Regardless of the payment method, after the purchase is completed, users are returned to their portal, where they can see the purchased course and their previous purchases. They can click on the course to start.

Administrators can customize the instructions displayed at the top of the Purchases area. To add custom instructions, go to Admin/E-commerce, visit the Customize area, then click Add under Purchases.

Enter the instructions, then click Save.

The custom instructions will be displayed in the Purchases area.

Bulk purchase

If enabled, you can make a bulk purchase. After finishing the checkout process, you can either enroll others using the seats you have purchased, or you can transfer seats to another account. Please note that we only support bulk purchases for courses.

To enable bulk purchases, go to Admin/E-commerce/Configure/Bulk Purchases and click Enable under Bulk purchases.

When bulk purchases are enabled, the shopping cart allows you to select a quantity and also whether the item(s) are for someone else. Note that if the items are for someone else, then the purchaser is not auto-enrolled into the course after the purchase.

The checkout page review column allows you to view/edit the quantity and define if the purchase is for somebody else.

After the checkout process is finished, the purchaser is logged into the account, and the items show up in the Dashboard/Purchases area.

You can enroll students in the courses for which you have seats available by clicking Enroll.

The people picker screen opens. Enter a minimum of three characters to populate the results.

Select the applicable names and click the > icon.

The selected names now moved to the Selected column. Select the names to be enrolled in the course and click Enroll.

You can transfer available seats to someone else by clicking on Transfer.

Select the user and choose the number of seats you want to transfer, then click Transfer.

To see the details of a purchase, click on "More details".

Here you can see the transfer history for purchase.

When you transfer seats, the recipient receives a notification.

The notification includes a link to a Dashboard/Seats area.

Here they can see the available seats and use the Enroll and Transfer options.

Bulk purchase access codes

You can enable "Bulk purchase access codes" via Admin/E-commerce/Configure/Bulk purchases. If enabled, when someone does a bulk purchase, they get an access code for that purchase which they can give to others. Then the access code can be redeemed via the Catalog by either clicking the link that was sent via the canned message or by going to the course in the Catalog and clicking "or enter an access code".

To enable access codes for bulk purchases, go to Admin/E-commerce/Configure/Bulk purchases, then click Enable under "Bulk purchase access codes".

When purchasing the course, enter the quantity and click the "For someone else" checkbox.

When you complete the checkout process, in the Purchases area of your dashboard, the access code is shown next to the bulk purchase.

If you want to send the access code via email, click on "Bulk email".

A pop-up will open that allows you to enter the email addresses of the people you'd like to send the access code to. The email is initialized from a canned message. You can also click "Send using your own email client" if you prefer to send it from your own email client.

When someone receives the email, they can access the Course catalog by clicking the link in the message.

They will be redirected to the course's catalog page, and the access code will be automatically entered. A pop-up will open where visitors can select to create an account or in case they already have an account, they can sign in.

Alternatively, visitors can click the "or enter an access code" link on the course's catalog page under Purchase and enter the access code manually.

Tracking orders and purchases

To see a summary of all purchases, click Admin/E-commerce. The Summary page shows an "Order summary" with completed, incomplete, and abandoned orders and also an "item summary" in the Items area with each item type (Courses, Bundles, Digital Media, Subscriptions) and their data such as the number of sold items, total revenue, and more.

To run a revenue report, click on Report under Orders.

A pop-up will open where you can create reports about your revenue.

You can also run ad-hoc reports on incomplete orders via Reports/Custom reports/Orders by including the filter "checkout_at has no value". To learn more about ad-hoc reports, visit the Reports topic.

In the Orders area, you can access the list of completed and incomplete orders to see their status. To see the completed orders click Completed.

To see details of a particular order, click the Details icon.

To see the list of incomplete orders, click Incomplete in the Orders area.

Here you can manually verify the payments by selecting incomplete orders and then clicking Verify.

To see the list of abandoned orders, click Abandoned in the Orders area.

To see details of a particular abandoned order, click the Details icon.

You can click on the user's name to see more details.

If the user is a visitor, the account will appear as suspended.

Courses, bundles, and digital media include a Purchases tab in the left bar that lists all the purchases of the item.

To message the users who purchased the item, select them and click the Message button.

For administrators, the listing also includes a link to the details of the order. To see the details for a particular order, click its details icon.

The right bar of courses, bundles, and digital media also includes the "E-commerce" box that summarizes the price, number of items ordered, and total revenue from that item.

Learners can see the purchased courses and bundles in their Purchases tab in the main site dashboard.

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E-commerce

E-commerce

Overview

Configuring e-commerce using PayPal

Enable Instant Payment Notification Courses

Enabling e-commerce using PayPal

Configuring e-commerce using PayPal Payments Pro

Configuring e-commerce using Authorize.net

Configuring e-commerce using Stripe

Configuring e-commerce using PayUbiz

Configuring e-commerce using PayU Latam

Configuring e-commerce using PagSeguro

Configuring e-commerce using Flywire

Configuring e-commerce using YooMoney

Configuring e-commerce using Mercado Pago

Configuring e-commerce using Conekta

Configuring e-commerce using purchase orders

Configuring e-commerce using multiple payment gateways

Notifications

Rules

Customize

Courses

Paths

Bundles

Subscription plans

Selling Digital media

Bulk discounts

Tax

TaxJar

Avalara

VAT

GST

Coupons

Setting prices for courses

Setting prices

Adding purchase actions

Adding coupons

Publishing the course catalog to the portal

Shopping and checkout experience

PayPal

PayPal Payments Pro

Authorize.net

Stripe

PayUbiz

PayU Latam

PagSeguro

Flywire

YooMoney

Purchase order

Multiple payment gateways

Bulk purchase

Bulk purchase access codes

Tracking orders and purchases

Related Articles

Best practices for administrators

Dashboard

Widgets

Organizations

Reports