Choose checkout & customer accounts
You can use cartonium to manage your store while choosing how customers check out and where they access their accounts. Hosted cartonium checkout is an option; it is not a requirement for managing your catalog or using your own storefront.
Checkout and customer accounts are separate choices. You can use your own checkout with hosted customer accounts, or hosted checkout with account pages your developer has built.
Choose a checkout mode
Open Settings → Checkout → Checkout mode for the store you want to change.
| Mode | What you need |
|---|---|
| Hosted cartonium checkout | Your storefront sends shoppers to cartonium's hosted checkout, with your store's branding. Your developer connects the storefront's cart to that checkout. |
| BYO | Your developer builds and hosts a checkout interface connected to cartonium. |
| Hybrid | Your storefront supports both hosted checkout and your own checkout interface. Your developer decides where each is offered. |
Saving a mode records your preference. It does not build or deploy a storefront, create a working cart, or connect your payment account. Ask your developer to confirm the selected checkout journey is connected before sending shoppers to it. Developers can use the BYO checkout guide.
Owners and Admins, and Staff granted the Settings permission group, can change these settings. Connecting or changing the Stripe payment account requires an Owner or Admin.
Choose where customer accounts open
In the same Checkout settings form, use Customer action base URL:
- Use hosted accounts: leave the field blank. Customer sign-in and account links use your store's hosted cartonium checkout address when it can be resolved.
- Use your own account pages: enter the origin of the site your developer
has prepared, such as
https://account.example.com. The domain must be verified for your store or approved by cartonium. Only the origin is used; a path or query in this field does not choose a landing page.
Changing Checkout mode does not change this account destination. There is no separate switch to enable hosted accounts. Before setting your own origin, have your developer confirm the required sign-in, account, and order-action pages with cartonium support. Entering your storefront homepage does not create those pages.
Review the destination preview in Admin. An invalid or untrusted destination may fall back to hosted pages. If Admin cannot resolve a hosted address, reload the page and contact support if it remains unavailable; do not guess the address.
Save and check your destinations
- Confirm the selected store, Sandbox / Live mode where available, and the checkout mode you intend to use.
- Review Customer action base URL and the checkout return links. These control different destinations: returning to your store does not choose where customer accounts open.
- Review Tax mode before choosing Save checkout settings. The form saves the displayed tax mode along with the other settings. When no tax mode has been saved, it displays Stripe Tax by default. Read tax setup before saving an unintended policy.
- After saving, check the displayed destinations again. Have your developer verify sign-in, checkout, and return links using test orders before taking live sales.
For card payments through cartonium, both hosted checkout and a custom checkout need your store's Stripe connection, appropriate tax and shipping setup, and products ready to sell. A Stripe connection is not required just to manage your catalog or let customers sign in to hosted accounts.
Find your hosted addresses
Open Settings → API & webhooks → Connection details. Check Current mode, then use the displayed Hosted customer account URL and Hosted checkout URL for that mode. A hosted address does not require you to purchase a custom domain.
The customer account address opens your store's hosted account page. Signed-out shoppers can choose Sign in there. The checkout address alone is not a checkout for a shopper's cart; your storefront must start that checkout. Use the displayed addresses rather than constructing one from your store name.
Explain customer sign-in to your shoppers
On the hosted Sign in or create account page, shoppers enter their email and choose Email me a sign-in link. They can follow the emailed link or enter its code and choose Sign in with code. They do not use a merchant Admin password. Customer accounts belong to the store where the shopper signs in; do not invite shoppers as teammates to give them account access.
Hosted checkout also supports guest checkout. Creating a customer account is not required for every purchase.