Increasing user flexibility in Store Credit application during checkout

[rainerdema]

Long-Term Solution

Desired Behavior

Our long-term goal is to introduce the ability to select store credits as a payment method. We want to provide users more control and flexibility in their store credit usage. If the store credits are insufficient to cover the entire order, users should be able to select a different payment method to cover the remaining amount.

Current Behavior

At present, users do not have control over whether or not to use their store credits during the checkout process. The system automatically applies store credits if they are available, which may not always align with the user's intentions.

Additional notes

While implementing this feature, we need to ensure that the user experience remains smooth and intuitive.
For instance, when users decide to split their payment, we should provide clear instructions on how to do so, and how to select another payment method for the remaining amount or use a saved wallet if available.

The implementation might require some changes to solidus_core.
However, preliminary discussions have identified potential solutions that could simplify this implementation and possibly avoid changes to solidus_core.

For more details about the short-term solution, refer to #345.

For more information about these proposed solutions, please refer to solidusio/solidus#5109 (comment).
This issue contains additional discussion and context about the identified problems and the suggested solutions to improve the store credit flow in Solidus.

[fthobe]

Hey,

I think that store credit as a payment method is not the most elegant way as store credit can also be covering only a fraction and not the entire amount rendering a radio button set as currently accepted industry practice for payment selection impossible. A simple checkbox would be sufficient and better suited for this use case. Below a screenshot of the one page checkout of BC.

[fthobe]

@jarednorman @tvdeyen what do you two think? I am not convinced to treat it as a payment method is correct as you can't combine payment methods on the frontend in one order. I think the Bigcommerce approach is smart.

[tvdeyen]

I am not in favor of treating store credits different from other payment methods. We should fix the issues with multiple payments on the payment step instead. The issues with store credits are present in other payment methods as well (gift cards, insufficient bank funds, etc.). So I prefer a solution that fixes them for all payment methods.

[fthobe]

Do you mean technically or visually in the frontend?

[fthobe]

And do you have an example of a store with multiple payment methods that can be applied at the same time to study it.

[fthobe]

If you know of more payment related issues could you also group them up in a discussion?