Collecting Additional Information from Customers at Checkout

The Additional Information feature allows you to gather extra information from customers during checkout, which can be particularly useful for cross-border businesses. It helps you collect details like tax numbers, customs clearance codes, or ID numbers needed for smooth fulfillment.

About Additional Information

When enabled, the Additional Information field appears on the checkout page with a customizable message prompting customers to provide the specific information you require. 

SHOPLINE provides pre-defined instructions and formats for the following 29 countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Cameroon, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Egypt, Ghana, Guatemala, Indonesia, India, Italy, Kenya, South Korea, Morocco, Mexico, Malaysia, Nigeria, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Paraguay, Senegal, Turkey, Uruguay, Vietnam, and South Africa. These countries' or regions’ Additional Information fields are disabled and optional by default. To collect this default information, you'll need to enable it. You can also mark the field as Required or Optional. If a required field is enabled for a predefined country, the system will verify the customer's input against the predefined format. If you accidentally delete a default configuration of a predefined country or region, you can click Add to restore it.

While SHOPLINE offers predefined settings for some countries or regions, you can still customize the instructions and format for any country or region to collect the specific extra information you need. However, keep in mind that customized information won't be subject to format verification. If you modify the configuration of a predefined country, an alert will appear informing you that format verification will no longer be applied.

Enabling the Additional Information Field

Let's walk through enabling the Additional Information field for customers in the United States to collect their tax numbers:

1. From your SHOPLINE admin panel, go to Settings > Checkout settings.
   
2. Scroll down to the Additional information section and check the box next to Show additional information input box on checkout page. Then click Edit applicable countries list.
   
3. Enable the countries or regions where the Additional Information field will appear during checkout. For example, you can enable this for the United States by following these steps:
   
   • If "United States" is not in the list, click Add, configure the following items, and then click Save.
     
     
     • Select United States: You can search for it with keywords, or select from the drop-down list.
     • Provide the instruction and/or format for the additional information: The text will be shown on the checkout page for customers from the United States. For example, "Tax Number."
     • Specify if this is a required field: Select Required and Optional.
   • If "United States" is already on the list, click the edit icon to the right of the row and confirm the configuration. If everything is correct, click Save.
     
4. Turn on the Status toggle for United States. By default, this toggle is turned on for customized countries or regions.
   
5. After configuration, customers with US shipping addresses will see the Additional Information field on the checkout page.