How to create a Shopify-like checkout page with SureCart the easy way

Checkout pages are the most important part of an eCommerce store as they literally give visitors a reason to buy or leave.

Shopify checkout is a typical example that works for most eCommerce stores. It’s simple and offers an excellent user experience.

If your online store is built with WordPress, you may want a similar experience for your own customers.

Fortunately, it’s possible to replicate Shopify aesthetics in WordPress.

Using WordPress and SureCart together, you have endless possibilities to design a checkout page that skyrockets your eCommerce game.

In this tutorial we will show you a step-by-step process to design checkout pages like Shopify.

You will also learn how to install SureCart on your website properly and set everything up so you can begin selling right away.

Let’s first see how a typical Shopify checkout page looks like.

Shopify checkout examples

Generally, Shopify checkout pages feature a two-column layout. They show contact and payment information on the left and an order summary on the right.

If you haven’t seen how a Shopify checkout looks, here’s a few examples:

1. Cowboy makes premium electric bikes for urban riders using adaptive power technology.

2. The Rainbow Vision makes handmade paper goods and gifts to inspire creativity.

3. Kulala makes lamps that help you deal with sleep disorders.

As you can see, all three examples show more or less similar page layouts.

In the following part of the tutorial, we will show you how to achieve a similar format using SureCart.

Key features of SureCart

SureCart is a powerful eCommerce solution that is flexible, lightweight and beginner friendly.

You can create checkout forms however you want and load them with multiple payment options.

You can either use pre-designed form templates or use your imagination to design an impressive checkout page.

The plugin is loaded with tons of modern features you can use to give your eCommerce store an edge over others.

You don’t need to worry about your website slowing down either.

SureCart is designed to deliver a bloat-free experience despite the wealth of features it provides.

It’s not only because SureCart is a well-coded plugin, it uses cloud technology to ensure performance is a top priority.

Another aspect of SureCart that we really like is that you don’t need extra plugins to get the functionality you want. It comes with advanced features right out of the box.

If you want to know more about how SureCart is different from other eCommerce solutions, here’s a hands-on comparison of SureCart, WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.

You can also check out this tutorial on creating an online store with SureCart.

Install and configure SureCart

SureCart is easy to install and configure. It’s a straightforward process that anyone can handle.

We’ll need to show you how to set everything up before we get to making the checkout look like Shopify.

Here’s how to configure the plugin:

1. Install SureCart

Go to Plugins > Add New and search for SureCart. Install the plugin and activate it when the option appears.

2. Set up your store

SureCart offers an installation wizard to guide you through setting up.

Click on the Get Started link inside the SureCart menu. It will initiate a wizard to help you configure everything.

On the welcome screen, click on the Set Up My Store button. It’s a four-step process that opens a registration form.

Enter your information and press the Sign Up button.

You’ll need to complete this process so you can link the SureCart plugin with the cloud servers that do the heavy lifting.

You can also use the Continue with Google option. It’s more convenient!

On the next screen, you will be asked to create your online store. Fill in the form and press the Create Store button.

NOTE:

You can create multiple stores using SureCart. If you want to update a store’s information later, you can.

There is another option at the bottom of this screen: Or, setup your store later. This is a helpful option especially when you want to finalize your store details at a later time.

3. Connect the payment processors

The third step is about connecting the store to payment processors.

SureCart currently offers seamless connectivity with Stripe and PayPal.

You can also offer your European customers Mollie which is in beta testing at the moment.

Once connected to the payment processor, the status will show as Enabled.

NOTE:

The good news is that the SureCart team is working to bring onboard multiple new payment processors including Razorpay and Paystack.

4. Connect SureCart with WordPress

Press the Next Step button to generate the API token SureCart uses to connect with WordPress.

This token provides secure authentication between the SureCart server and the plugin to ensure all data is kept safe.

Copy the token and press the Back to WordPress button.

Paste the copied token key and press the Complete Installation button.

By now you are all set. SureCart has created your store, configured payment processors and connected everything to WordPress!

Understanding the SureCart interface

After configuration, the SureCart menu is populated with essential menu items that help you perform a number of functions.

Let’s briefly explain each of them:

• Dashboard: Shows a brief summary of activities including revenue, orders, and average order value. You will also get shortcuts to several items and tutorials.
• Orders: All orders can be accessed here
• Products: You can add products here. It also shows you a list of products in your store.
• Coupons: Create and manage coupons here
• Subscriptions: You can manage subscriptions from this menu
• Customers: This menu shows a list of your customers. You can also manually add customers here
• Cart: You can customize your shopping cart from this menu
• Forms: This menu item allows you to create and customize checkout forms
• Settings: You can play with a number of settings such as branding, notifications, taxes, and many more

We would recommend spending a little time familiarizing yourself with these menus to make working with SureCart easier.

Add a product

A store isn’t a store without products. That’s what we’ll tackle next.

To add a product, navigate to SureCart > Products and press the Add New button.

Enter the product name on the next screen and press the Create button.

On the next page, you can add a description, price, images and other product details.

With SureCart, you can easily integrate with other plugins from the product page. It’s a powerful feature that prevents needing to manually integrate plugins.

From the Instant Checkout drop down, you can enable/disable a number of features such as test mode, store logo, product description, and coupons.

The next section explains how to design a Shopify-like page with images and GIFs.

We also have an in-depth video tutorial to guide you through the whole process.

9 Steps to create Shopify like checkout with SureCart

Now we have set up SureCart, let’s begin customizing that checkout form!

1. Create a checkout form

SureCart offers several pre-made templates to make your life easier and that’s what we’ll use here.

To create a form, go to SureCart > Forms and press the Add New button. Choose the desired template and that’s it.

Here is how a single page layout looks.

If you have a form already created, you can edit it rather than build a new one.

Open the checkout form in edit mode from SureCart > Forms and make any changes you need.

Whether you create a new form or open a form in edit mode, clicking on the gray strip at the top of the form will show the settings on the right.

Press the Change Template button. A notice will appear on the screen with the text “Are you sure you want to change the template? This will completely replace your current form.”

Press the Ok button to allow SureCart to present several predefined form layouts to choose from.

Scroll down to select the Two Column layout and press the Next button.

2. Add a product to the checkout form

On the next screen, press the Add Product button to choose the product we created earlier.

Select the product you want. You can choose as many products as you want for checkout. Once you are done, press the Create button.

NOTE:

Underneath the product selection you will notice a few options for improving the user experience.

We will leave the settings as they are for this tutorial.

The next screen shows a form ready for you to use. Click the Update button to save the changes.

3. Rearrange the columns

The form is a two column layout but it looks different from what we need. We want contact information on the left and an order summary on the right.

Since SureCart forms are built with the WordPress block editor, you can edit them in any way you like.

Click on the list view icon in the top bar to display the elements.

Use the small arrow to expand the form elements to access the two columns. We want to rearrange these two columns to switch their positions.

Select the second column and drag it to the top of the first column.

As a result, the left column will move to the right where we want it to be – the order summary on the right and contact information on the left.

Don’t forget to press the Update button to save the change.

Since we haven’t configured express payments, we don’t want this option to appear.

To remove it, expand the column with the express payment element. Hover the mouse over it to see three dots.

Click on the three dots to open the menu, then scroll down and click on Remove Express Payment.

If you want more customization, you can remove/edit other items in a similar way.

You can also add or change field labels however you want.

When you are done with the changes, press the Update button.

4. Add a checkout form to the checkout page

We want to see how this form looks on a live website which is why we need a web page to attach this form to.

Click on Pages > Add New to create a page.

Choose a suitable title. We suggest keeping it the same as your form.

After adding the title, select a block and use the Toggle Block Inserter button to search for the Checkout Form block.

Next:

• Click the Select Form button
• Choose the form you just created
• Press the Choose button

Press the Publish button in the top right corner to save your new form.

You will see the desired form appear on the page.

Now, open this page in live mode to see how the form looks.

As you can see the checkout form shows a few things that we don’t want.

They are:

• Menu items
• Page title
• Page scroll

All these elements can cause distractions and increase your cart abandonment rate.

We’ll remove those shortly.

5. Change the form dimensions

First we want to change the form dimensions.

Open the checkout form in edit mode from SureCart > Forms.

Select a column from the list view to show settings on the right sidebar.

Now, go to the Styles tab and look for Dimensions. Set the padding value to 70.

Repeat the steps for the other column.

Once done, press the Update button.

In the next step, we will remove those unwanted elements from the checkout page.

Before that, let’s introduce you to the theme and page builder our test website uses.

We used the Spectra page builder and the Astra theme on our website because they integrate naturally with SureCart.

There are plenty of benefits to using this combination such as performance, flexibility and user friendliness.

Here are the key advantages both offer:

Astra	Spectra
Fully customizable	Super fast page builder
Multipurpose, suits any niche	User friendly interface
Extremely light weight	Professionally designed templates and patterns
Compatible with all popular plugins	Ready to use blocks available
Offers 240+ Starter Templates	Integrates seamlessly with WordPress and other plugins
SEO friendly and fully responsive	Endless design possibilities

You don’t need Astra or Spectra for SureCart to work. But if you do, the results are awesome!

SureCart works with any multipurpose theme and page builder.

If you are not an Astra or Spectra user, don’t worry. You can still use this tutorial with your favorite theme.

6. Disable the header and footer

In WP Admin, go to Pages > All Pages and open the checkout page in edit mode.

Click on the Astra settings button in the top right corner.

In the Astra settings area, expand the Disable Elements tab and enable the options to Disable Header and Disable Footer.

Next, press the title disable icon in the top left corner of the editor. It looks like an eye.

Press the Update button so save your changes.

Open the checkout page on the front end to see the results.

7. Add a logo to the form

We disabled the header on the checkout page which also removed the logo. We recommend adding it back to your page to make it more engaging.

With Spectra, there are several ways to add logos to your website.

We will first add a container to our checkout page.

For this, click on the toggle block inserter (+ sign) and select the container block.

Choose the one-column container from the list.

In the newly created container, click on the + sign to add the site logo block.

Adjust the logo size from the right side settings area. We will change image width to 300px.

You can set a value according to your needs.

We need to center align the logo now. Keep the logo block selected and press the Align button on the block toolbar.

A menu will appear for you to choose the desired alignment option.

Next, select the container from the list view and go to the settings area on the right.

We want our container to be full height to avoid scrolling.

Go to Minimum Height under the Container tab and set the VH value to 100 which is a percentage value.

You will notice the container height is increased and the logo center aligned. It doesn’t have to be like this.

A logo should ideally be positioned at the top, which is where flex properties come in.

While the container is selected in the list view, go to Flex Properties and change the vertical alignment of the container’s content.

By default it is set to center, but we want it to move to the top.

Click on the Flex Start button as shown in the image and you will see the logo moving to the top edge of the container.

Next, we want to change the container background color. Click on the Style tab and change the background color to whatever you want.

Check the live page where you will find the logo under the checkout form. This is not what we want.

Let’s jump to the next step to fix it.

8. Create an inner container

Instead of dragging the logo to move it to the top of the form, we will add another container inside the existing container we just created.

This makes it much easier to handle any block element inside.

To do this, we will select the container from the list view and press the plus sign in the bottom right corner.

Choose the container block when the block menu appears.

We call this container an inner container.

We will place the checkout form inside the inner container.

An easy way to add the checkout form here is to go to the list view, select the form, and drag it from wherever it is to the inner container.

Now we have moved the logo on top of our checkout form, it still needs attention.

In the image you can see the logo is positioned at the edge of the browser, which looks odd.

To fix this, we need to adjust the space around it.

9. Manage spacing and background colors

There are a number of ways to achieve this but we will choose the padding option around the logo.

Open the checkout page in edit mode, select the logo block from the list view and move to the settings area on the right. Click on the Style tab.

Click on the plus sign to show the tools menu and select the Padding option from there.

Use the slider to change padding or use the customize size option to alter the spaces more precisely.

Each block has its own set of settings that allow you to create more engaging checkout pages.

If you want drop shadows or to change the background color of each column, use the following settings:

• Box shadows: Container > Style > Box Shadows
• Form color: Container > Style > Background
• Column color: Form Column > Styles > Color > Background

Here are some of the checkout form layouts we created in this tutorial.

You can make it more engaging by adding express checkout options or anything you want to add to your form.

Layout 1

Layout 2

Layout 3

Even if you use a different theme or page builder, you can still achieve great results. The basic principle remains the same.

You can think of any layout design and SureCart’s powerful customization features will help you achieve what you need.

Final Thoughts

Having selected WordPress for your online store means endless possibilities to shape your checkout page the way you want.

A simple but engaging checkout page means more conversions and more profit.

Shopify’s checkout pages are clean and engaging. If you want your eCommerce store to be the same you’re in luck.

In this hands-on tutorial, we explained how to create a Shopify-style checkout page with SureCart, why this plugin is a wise choice and how to configure it properly.

If you’ve revamped your checkout page using SureCart, we would love to hear your story in the comments!