Definition
Checkout in Salesforce Commerce refers to the process and functionality that allows customers to complete a purchase in a Salesforce Commerce Cloud storefront. It encompasses the cart review, shipping address entry, shipping method selection, payment processing, and order confirmation steps. Checkout can be customized to support various payment methods, tax calculations, and promotional discounts.
Real-World Example
a platform engineer at NovaScale uses Checkout to enhance the organization's Salesforce footprint with additional functionality. By leveraging Checkout, the team avoids building a custom solution from scratch, saving months of development time while gaining enterprise-grade features out of the box.
Why Checkout Matters
Checkout in Salesforce Commerce Cloud is the customer-facing process for completing a purchase, covering everything from the cart review through order confirmation. It includes cart review (line items, quantities, totals), shipping address entry (with optional address book lookup for returning customers), shipping method selection, payment processing (credit cards, digital wallets, alternative methods), tax calculation, promotional code application, and order confirmation. The whole flow can be customized to match the merchant's brand and business requirements.
Checkout is one of the most-tuned parts of any commerce experience because friction at this stage directly translates to abandoned carts and lost revenue. Best-practice checkouts minimize required fields, support guest checkout (no account creation), display clear pricing and shipping costs upfront, and optimize for mobile. Salesforce Commerce Cloud provides a flexible checkout framework that supports all of these patterns, plus integration with payment providers, tax engines, address validation, and fraud detection. Service Cloud integration through Case-Checkout linking lets support agents see and act on the same orders later.
How Organizations Use Checkout
- •NovaScale — Customized their Commerce Cloud Checkout to support guest checkout, reducing the number of required fields and improving conversion. Conversion rate increased by 15% after the change.
- •Vertex Global — Integrated their Checkout with a tax calculation provider to handle complex multi-jurisdiction tax rules. The integration eliminated manual tax adjustments that had been a recurring source of customer support tickets.
- •Wanderlust Travel — Built a multi-traveler checkout flow that captures different traveler details for each person on a booking. The flow respects the Commerce Cloud framework while adding domain-specific fields for travel.