Implementing order capture

A store associate can use the order capture feature in Sterling Store Engagement to find products for customers, select appropriate fulfillment options, add the products to the cart, and capture payments. This section describes the APIs, services, and other components that are used to implement the order capture feature.

Sterling Store Engagement provides visibility into the available fulfillment methods for the selected products and the availability of the products in the current and other stores so that you can capture orders from customers in a store. An order can have a combination of pickup, shipping, and carry-out order lines. Some products might not be available in the current store but might be available in the stores nearby, or in other locations. You can capture the orders in all such scenarios.

You can use the checkout feature to capture the order quickly instead of finding products and adding them to the cart, which streamlines the long queue of customers. You can also use the option to select an alternate store according to the preference of the customers for picking up products or shipping the products to the preferred location of the customers.

The following activities can be done as part of the in-store order capture process:

Search for or scan products that the customer wants to buy.
Show availability of products in store, at nearby stores, or for shipping.
Identify a customer or capture customer details.
Complete the order capture by using any of the available fulfillment options, ship, pick up, or carry, which can be different for each ordered product.
Capture payment for the order by using different payment methods such as credit card, debit card, or store value card.
Override the price for any changes in the unit price.
Add or modify charges and apply coupons.
Mark the complete or partial order as a gift.

Assumptions and limitations

Carry lines are considered as pickup at the current store.
Bundled items and parent SKUs are not buyable and cannot be added to cart.
Capturing Segment or SegmentType information during order creation is not supported. The getItemAvailabilityForStore API does not consider segmented inventory in the order capture flow.
Serial number scan is mandatory for serialized products in Carry orders.
All associated items are displayed but are always added to an order as a new line.
Selection of pickup date and pickup recipient is not currently supported.
Customer preference for shipping such as fastest delivery or few shipments as possible is not currently supported.
Saving a payment method as the preferred method for a customer is not currently supported.
Availability information for Carry lines is treated as a pick-up order at the current store. This is a workaround until IBM® Sterling Inventory Visibility supports the Carry delivery method.
Availability information for Carry lines is verified only in the View cart page. After the Carry line is added to the order, availability check is not done. For serialized products, serial number availability is checked before opening the payment capture page.
Before capturing the payment, system does an availability check for Pick and Ship lines only.
Coupons are applied or removed as promotions at the order header level by using Sterling Store Engagement. Applying coupons at order line is not supported.
You cannot remove coupons that are applied at the order line level for orders that are created outside Sterling Store Engagement. You can only view these orders in Sterling Store Engagement.