Commerce & Checkout — Marketing Central Proposal

The Ordering Flow

The ordering flow is designed to be linear and frictionless, with the platform handling complexity behind the scenes. A franchisee moving from product selection to confirmed order shouldn't need to understand fund mechanics, carrier rate calculation, or tax rules — the platform surfaces what they need to know at each step.

1

Product Selection & Configuration

The franchisee selects a product from the storefront, chooses quantity and any variants, and — for customizable products — completes or attaches their design from the Design Builder. Fund eligibility and per-unit pricing update in real time as selections are made.

2

Add to Cart

Items are added to a persistent cart that is tied to the franchisee's account, not their browser session. Carts survive browser closes, device switches, and session timeouts. The cart shows running totals, fund impact, and any items pending design review approval.

3

Shipping Configuration

Shipping address defaults to the franchisee's primary office address but can be modified. Real carrier rates (UPS, FedEx, USPS) are fetched in real time based on the order contents, origin point, and destination. The franchisee selects a shipping method from the actual available options with actual prices.

4

Payment Allocation

The franchisee selects how to pay: credit card only, Zee Funds only, MRA Funds only, or a split across any combination. The platform validates that the selected fund allocation does not exceed the available balance, and that the products selected are eligible for the fund being applied. The remaining balance (if any) is automatically routed to credit card.

5

Review & Confirm

The franchisee reviews a full order summary — items, customization status, shipping method and cost, tax, fund application, and credit card charge — before confirming. For orders containing items pending design review, the confirmation screen explains the hold status clearly.

6

Order Confirmation & Tracking

After confirmation, funds are frozen (not deducted — frozen, pending vendor fulfillment), the vendor is notified, and the order appears in the franchisee's order history with real-time status updates. Email confirmation is sent immediately.

Multi-Wallet Checkout

The most Liberty-specific requirement in the checkout module is the multi-wallet payment model. A single order may be paid with a combination of Zee Funds, MRA Funds, and a credit card — all in one transaction, with eligibility enforced per line item.

Real-Time Balance Visibility

The franchisee's available Zee and MRA balances are displayed during checkout, reflecting any frozen amounts from pending orders. There is no ambiguity about what they can spend — the number shown is accurate to the current state of the fund ledger.

Per-Product Fund Eligibility Enforcement

Not all products are eligible for Zee Funds, and not all are eligible for MRA Funds. The checkout engine validates fund application at the line-item level — preventing a franchisee from accidentally applying MRA funds to a product that doesn't qualify, and surfacing clear messaging if a selection is invalid.

Split Payment in One Transaction

If a franchisee wants to apply $150 in Zee Funds and pay the remaining $85 by credit card, they can do that in a single checkout. The platform handles the fund reservation and the payment processor charge in a coordinated transaction, with rollback if either step fails.

USD/CAD Automatic Currency

Pricing, taxes, shipping, and fund balances are presented in the correct currency based on the franchisee's country. A Canadian franchisee sees CAD pricing throughout the entire checkout flow. Currency conversion is not required — the platform maintains separate USD and CAD pricing for products and separate fund ledgers by country.

Payment Processor: Open Item

The payment processor is an open decision — Liberty has not yet selected a provider. Marketing Central's checkout architecture is designed to be processor-agnostic: the payment abstraction layer supports any processor with a standard REST API. The estimate assumes a standard REST API integration; specific processor selection does not change the approach materially.

Shipping & Tax

Two of the most common frustration points in the current platform are inaccurate shipping estimates and unexpected charges. Marketing Central addresses both with real carrier rate APIs and proper tax calculation.

Real Carrier Rates

Shipping quotes are pulled from UPS, FedEx, and USPS rating APIs in real time, based on the actual products in the cart (dimensions and weight configured per product), the ship-from location (vendor warehouse), and the ship-to address (franchisee's office). The franchisee sees real options with real prices — including the actual transit time for each service level.

This directly addresses the documented problem of franchisees being charged ~$150 to ship ~$30 worth of materials due to estimated flat-rate shipping that doesn't reflect actual carrier charges.

Tax Calculation

Sales tax is calculated based on the ship-to address. The platform integrates with a tax calculation service (or the selected payment processor's built-in tax capability) to apply the correct state/province and local tax rates to physical goods orders. Digital downloads are treated separately per applicable tax rules.

Canadian orders apply GST/PST/HST based on province. Tax is calculated, displayed, and recorded per order for the franchisee's records. Marketing Central generates tax reports for Liberty's accounting team.

Saved Payment Methods

The RFP asks to manage credit card information at a user level. Franchisees can securely save one or more payment methods to their account for faster checkout across orders — there is no need to re-enter a card on every purchase. Cards are tokenized by the payment processor: only a token, the last four digits, and the card brand are stored in Marketing Central, never the full PAN, consistent with the platform's PCI approach.

Users manage their saved methods in account settings — adding, removing, and setting a default. Saved payment methods coexist with the Zee Fund and MRA wallets in the multi-wallet checkout, so a franchisee can apply fund balances to eligible items and route any remaining charge to a saved default card in a single transaction.

Order Management

After an order is placed, both the franchisee and Liberty's marketing/admin team need visibility into its status. Marketing Central provides real-time order tracking tied to vendor API updates.

Real-Time Order Status

Order status updates flow from vendor APIs directly to the franchisee's order history: Order Placed, Received by Vendor, In Production, Shipped (with carrier tracking number), Delivered, Cancelled. Franchisees no longer need to call support to find out where their order is.

Cancellation Window

Franchisees can cancel an order within a configured window after placement (configurable per product or vendor). After the window closes or the vendor confirms receipt, cancellation requires admin intervention. Cancelled orders release any frozen fund balances immediately.

Order History & Reorder

Every past order is accessible in the franchisee's account with full details: items ordered, customization used, payment breakdown, shipping information, and delivery confirmation. One-click reorder recreates the cart with the same items, prompting for any updated customization before checkout.

Admin Order Visibility

Marketing and Admin users can view all orders across all offices, with filter and search capabilities. Admin can modify orders, issue cancellations, and trigger manual status updates when vendor API telemetry is delayed. Order data feeds directly into the Reporting module.