Setting Up Your Public-Facing Shopping Cart in Vision

This guide walks you through setting up and managing your public-facing shopping cart in Vision. The goal is to help you configure it independently, understand the logic behind its structure, and ensure your customers have a clean, guided signup experience.

Table of contents:

Pick Your Address:

Vision uses a location-first model. That means your system needs to know where a subscriber is located before it can show them service offers.

  • All offers are tied to Service Areas and are only shown if the customer’s address falls within one.
  • To set this up:
    • Create a Service Area that defines your coverage
    • Tie your Service Offers to that Service Area

[Learn how to set up Service Areas here.]

Embed Address to Shopping Cart

Easily connect your website’s address field to the public shopping cart by passing location data as URL parameters. You can use either a single full address or separate fields (address, city, state, zip). The cart will automatically validate the address and either show available offers or guide users through the validation process. Autocomplete tools like Google Maps or Mapbox can be added for convenience, but they are optional.

Learn more-> Point Embed Address to Shopping Cart

Shopping Cart Types

There are two versions of the public shopping cart:

 

Classic Cart:

  • Original configuration
  • Displays packages separately (e.g., Internet, Router, Phone as separate items)
  • Easy to set up, but harder to scale


     

Customizable Cart:

If you want to switch to this new cart or a demo, please contact support.

  • Newer configuration (default for new clients)

  • Two-step process: customer selects a base speed, then selects add-ons

  • Uses nested offers to group add-ons under a "parent" offer

With the customizable cart, you can nest add-on services under a base speed. This allows all selections to flow through one workflow and improves customer experience.

sc_selectOffersCustomize2.png

[Learn More About the Customizable Cart Here]

Be careful not to confuse Service Offers with Service Packages:

  • Packages are the underlying configuration (e.g., 1 Gig + Router)
  • Offers are how those packages are presented to customers

This allows you to reuse packages while changing how they’re displayed to different customer segments.

sc_offerRequirements.png

To display an offer in the public shopping cart, it must:

  • Be set to active status
  • Be set to "Visible on public shopping cart?"
  • Be tied to a Service Area
  • Be linked to a package in production status (not a package in development status)​​

Adding Customer Information

Customers are prompted to provide basic contact details:

  • Name
  • Phone
  • Email

Note: Capturing this information for follow-up purposes requires the Abandoned Shopping Cart functionality to be turned on. This setting must be enabled by the Vision team—reach out to Support if you’d like this feature activated.

Subscriber Portal Signup

Customers can create login credentials for the Subscriber Portal. This allows them to:

  • Track order status
  • Manage billing preferences
  • Access support tools

This feature can be toggled as:

  • Required
  • Optional
  • Disabled

Controlled in Admin Utilities > Service Area Management.

Screenshot 2025-05-15 at 9.29.32 AM.png

Invoice Delivery Preferences

You can configure how invoices are delivered:

  • Email (paperless)
  • Paper mail

This is also where you can activate a required Terms of Service checkbox that customers must acknowledge before proceeding.

Note: Email is the default option for customers. You can allow them to choose their invoice preference during signup or you can turn off the option to select paper mailing. To turn off the paper mailing option, please reach out to Support.

Configuring Up-Front Charges, Payment Information, and Auto-Pay

All configuration settings are found at Admin Utilities > Service Package > Select the package > Edit.

Payment Settings.png

This screen controls what happens when a user reaches the Public Shopping Cart, Subscriber Portal, or the Internal Shopping Cart checkout. Here, you decide:

  • Whether anything is billed up front (installation, equipment, first month, or nothing).
  • Whether a card information must be captured even if the up-front charge is $0.
  • Whether auto-pay is hidden, optional, or mandatory for each cart type.

Because the Public Shopping Cart can only store card information, every auto-pay setting there depends on collecting a card first.

Payment Options Table
One decision point: card-free vs. card-required checkout
Provider goal Payment Required at Time of Sale Require Payment Information Public-Cart “Recurring Payment Requirements” Who can finish checkout Auto-pay shown?
Allow ACH and card orders (no auto-pay) None Off Ignored ACH and card users Not Allowed
Offer auto-pay as a choice
(card on file, $0 charge)		 None On Optional Card users only1 Optional
Charge something up front, auto-pay optional Full or Partial (> $0) — Optional Card users only1 Optional
Force auto-pay Any setting that collects card information — Required Card users only1 Required

1 ACH customers must call in because the cart is requiring a card on file.

Quick guidance

  • Need both ACH and card users to self-serve?
    Leave Payment Required at None and keep Require Payment Information off — auto-pay won’t appear.
  • Need a card on file or auto-pay (optional or required)?
    Tick Require Payment Information (to charge $0) or bill an amount up front, then set Recurring Payment Requirements to Optional or Required. ACH users will be required to order via phone.

Signup Flow Types

Vision’s public shopping cart can be configured in three different ways. Each option changes the order of what customers see first, but everything else (packages, promo codes, payment, and confirmation) works the same.

Important: These settings can’t be changed in your admin tools. Contact Support if you’d like the Vision team to adjust your signup flow.

Option 1 (Default)

  • Customers enter and validate their address.
  • Eligible offers are displayed.
  • Contact details, invoice preference, and login are collected.
  • Subscriber checks out and pays.

Best for providers who want to show pricing quickly and move customers down the sales funnel fast.

Option 2

  • Customers enter and validate their address.
  • Contact information is collected.
  • Eligible offers are displayed.
  • Subscriber checks out and pays.

Best for providers who want to confirm serviceability before capturing customer details and reduce unqualified leads.

Option 3

  • Contact information is collected.
  • Subscriber enters and validates their address.
  • Eligible offers are displayed.
  • Subscriber checks out and pays.

Best for providers who want to capture leads up front and follow up on abandoned carts later.

Shopping Cart Settings

Under Admin Utilities>Service Offers, there is a tab for shopping cart settings. These allow you to customize some additional features of your public facing shopping cart. 

Offer Display

In this section, there are options to edit the orientation of offers, between row or column view, and the option to show only select categories of service items in the cart. 

Header

There is an optional input box that allows you to put a header on your shopping cart. It will appear below the address and above the shopping cart step.

Footer

There is also an optional input box that allows you to put a footer on your shopping cart. It will appear below the main content of the page.

Promo Codes

The promo code entry box always appears on the shopping cart offer page.

A tenant setting is also available to display it on the final step of checkout, either the invoice page or the payment page, depending on your cart setup.

To enable this setting, please contact Vision Support.

Terms of Service (TOS)

If a Terms of Service is configured, customers will always see a checkbox at checkout asking them to agree before submitting an order.

An optional tenant setting can disable this checkbox for interest-only packages, so customers expressing interest without purchasing service are not required to accept the terms. To enable this setting, please contact Vision Support.

Subscriber Workable Tasks

Regardless of which style of shopping cart you choose to go with, you can add subscriber workable tasks at the end of the shopping experience. These are questions and tasks that the customer fills out themselves such as self scheduling their fiber install or answering some important questions like if they own their home or have a dog.

For more information:

Maintenance & Versioning Strategy

As your service packages evolve, be sure to review your cart to ensure it's up to date.

Quarterly Reminder:
 Review your shopping cart every quarter to:

  • Update or set outdated offers to "inactive" status
  • Promote new services
  • Confirm workflows are properly linked
  • Set unused draft packages to "archive" status

This reduces support tickets and ensures a clean customer experience.

Best Practices

  • Keep offers simple and clearly labeled
  • Use a test environment to QA your cart before launch (contact the Vision team if you need assistance setting one up)
  • Use subscriber workable tasks to collect key info (e.g., buried utilities, dogs on-site)
  • Monitor abandoned carts and re-engage via Vision automation

Internal Shopping Cart

Your public shopping cart is for customers. If you need to place an order manually or handle a special-case setup (like a custom business deal), use the internal shopping cart within Vision.

This lets your team:

  • Bypass public cart rules
  • Use backend-only packages
  • Trigger internal workflows directly.

Untitled design (2).jpg

Cart Item Grouping

Cart Item Grouping is an option that allows you to organize service item options inside a single shopping cart offer instead of creating a separate offer for every possible combination.

For example, instead of creating separate offers for:

  • Internet only
  • Internet + phone
  • Internet + TV
  • Internet + phone + TV
  • Internet + add-ons

You can create one offer for the base package and allow the customer to choose from grouped service item options during checkout.

This is especially useful when building offers that include multiple service types, optional add-ons, equipment choices, or other configurable items.

How Cart Item Grouping Works

Cart item groups are set at the service item level.

When creating or editing a service item, you can assign it to a group such as:

  • Internet
  • Add-Ons
  • Phone Line
  • Video Channel Options
  • Equipment

These group names are used to organize the items when the package appears in the shopping cart. If the package includes multiple service items, the cart will automatically sort those items into their assigned groups.

This gives the customer a cleaner checkout experience and makes it easier for them to review and customize their package.

Using Groups on Invoices

When setting up service item groups, you also have the option to carry those groups over to invoices.

If enabled, the same grouping structure used in the shopping cart can also appear on the customer’s invoice. This helps keep charges organized and easier to understand, especially when a package includes several service items, add-ons, or one-time charges.

 

Building a Package with Grouped Items

After service items have been assigned to groups, you can create a package that includes all of the possible items a customer may choose from.

For example, a package may include:

  • A base internet service
  • Optional Wi-Fi equipment
  • Phone line options
  • TV or video options
  • Add-on services
  • Installation or one-time charges

When that package is attached to an offer and displayed in the shopping cart, Vision will automatically place the service items into their assigned cart item groups.

This allows one package and one offer to support multiple customer selections without needing to create a separate offer for each possible combination.

Why Use Cart Item Grouping?

Cart Item Grouping helps keep the shopping cart easier to manage for both administrators and customers.

For administrators, it reduces the number of offers that need to be created and maintained. Instead of building a new offer for every combination of internet, phone, TV, equipment, and add-ons, you can build one flexible offer with grouped choices.

For customers, it creates a clearer checkout experience. They can review the base service, choose optional items, and see charges organized by category before moving forward.

Need help setting this up? Contact Vision Support for assistance or to switch cart types.