What is a checkout session?¶

A checkout session is the sequence of activity through which a customer selects goods or services and submits payment information.

Avoid this assumption: One checkout session always belongs to one identified person and one successful payment.

A session may be linked to a merchant account, browser cookie, device, application instance or temporary guest checkout.

It can record cart contents, amount, currency, billing details, delivery details, discount codes, IP address, device or browser data and payment attempts.

Several payment attempts may occur within one session. A user may change card, address or delivery option before completing the order.

The session may also expire or be abandoned without payment.

Preserve the checkout-session ID, order ID, transaction references, account identifier, timestamps and device or network data.

Ask the merchant whether the session was authenticated to an account or created as a guest.

Obtain the sequence of changes, payment attempts and final outcome.

Do not assume that the person named in the billing or delivery fields controlled the session. Details may be copied, false or entered by another person.

A shared device, compromised account or remote-access session can also affect attribution.

The checkout session can help show what the user saw, selected and submitted, but not necessarily who they were.

Compare it with account logins, device evidence, communications, authentication records and delivery or collection information.

When reporting, distinguish the session, order, payment attempt and actual receipt of goods.

Operational takeaway¶

Preserve the complete checkout session and use its account, device, payment and delivery records to reconstruct the transaction without assuming the named customer was the user.