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      E-Commerce & Payments

      Knack includes payment features that can be seamlessly integrated with other Knack features like user logins and workflows. You can use this to build everything from single payment forms to rich E-Commerce applications.

      For example, you can:

      • Accept donations for your charity or non-profit
      • Create member areas that are only accessible after users pay for membership
      • Build self-service portals that allow customers to view and pay invoices or update payment information

      In this article, we will review examples of how you can add E-Commerce features to your apps.

       

      E-Commerce & Payment Examples

      Basic Payments

      Whether you sell products or services, you need a way to track customer orders and accept payments.

      You can see a quick and easy example of this in our Event Registration sample app:

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      Multi-Item Payments

      Some customer orders can include multiple products or services and you need to charge for all items in one order.

      For example, in our Bakery Manager sample app, users can add multiple baked goods to their order and then pay for that order.

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      Saving Payment Information

      You can let customers save their payment information so they can easily make future payments. You can also use the saved information to make payments on their behalf. 

      Here’s how that works in our Customer Payment Portal sample app:

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      Charge on Behalf of Customers

      Some services require hourly billing or dynamic billing approaches where you need to charge on behalf of your customers as services are rendered.

      For example, you may need to charge customers half upfront for a service and the other half upon completion.

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      Customer Self-Service Portals

      A self-service portal makes it easy for your customers to manage their own requests and billing without having to contact you.

      For example, in our Customer Payment Portal sample app customers can submit service requests, manage their payment information, and pay active invoices.

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      Paid Member Access

      You can create a paywall or payment gateway that restricts access to specific information or parts of your app until a user has paid for access.

      A typical example is charging a membership registration fee and hiding paid areas from non-members.

       

      Fundraising & Donations

      When fundraising for a cause or charity, you need an easy way to track and accept donations from donors.

      For example, you can have a donation portal that allows donors to donate to your cause and to store their credit card information so that future donations are a simple, one-click process. Here’s how it works in our Online Donation Portal sample app:

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      Dynamic Cost Calculations

      Calculating the cost of a purchase can include the base price plus additional items like taxes, fees, and discounts.

      A common example is giving customers a discount for bulk purchases. Here’s how that could work in the Bakery Manager sample app:

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      Additional Resources

      While we cover a few popular use cases for integrating E-Commerce into your apps, there are many more. There are also other features that can add more value to your use of E-Commerce features.

      See the articles below for more resources:

      Limitations

      While E-Commerce in Knack is powerful, there are certain features which are currently not available:​

      • Subscriptions & Recurring Payments

      • Peer-to-peer payments

      • Shopping cart