Pre-authorization is a redesigned sequence that changes how Bolt works with cart and card authorizations. When a customer clicks the Pay button in Bolt Checkout there are two events which must happen for a successful order to occur. 

These events are:

1. Credit Card Authorization
2. Order Creation in the Shopping Cart

Note — Currently Pre-Auth(Pre-Authorization) is available for only BigCommerce merchants.

Classic Sequence

In the classic sequence the credit card authorization occurs first. If the card is successfully authorized, the order is created in the shopping cart. Occasionally, the order creation is not possible, and then it will be rejected by the shopping cart.

The failure to create an order can be due to a variety of reasons, including:

• A selected product is out-of-inventory.
• An invalid shipping address was used.
• An expired/invalid discount code was used.

When a failure occurs, it can result in failed webhooks, and will generally require manual steps to resolve the issue. This often involves merchant assistance.

Pre-Auth Sequence

In the pre-auth sequence, the order creation will occur first, before the credit card authorization. This sequence will prevent the failed cart issue described above, and ideally will prevent the majority of the resulting webhooks failures.

Here is a list of a few things that pre-auth tackles for our merchants:

• Elimination of inventory errors
• Real-time order processing to better match sales timelines
• Improved customer messaging

In short: 

Classic Sequence

1. Credit Card Authorization
2. Order Creation in the Shopping Cart

Pre-Auth Sequence

1. Order Creation in the Shopping Cart
2. Credit Card Authorization

Examples of Pre-Auth Sequence

The two charts below each walkthrough a typical sequence with Pre-Auth. The walkthroughs go from when the customer clicks pay, through the payment capture, and terminate with the final response to the customer.