E-commmerce sites and creating an account

[DaisychainBaby]

Hi Everyone,
For all your e-commerce site owners out there, I'd like your opinions on how you ensure your customers have the easiest time getting from shopping cart to purchase? Do your customers have to create an account before they can go ahead and purchase something or do you provide the option for them to make a purchase online without the need for an account (providing of course that a complete set of contact info is captured upon checkout so you can actually get the goods to them)
Look forward to hearing your thoughts!

[edmondscommerce]

Most shopping carts have a checkout procedure that can be improved.

For osCommerce there is a PWA Purchase without account contribution installed as standard with CRELoaded.

However I strongly advise against using this as it will make finding customer orders tricky if a customer who chose to PWA rings up and doesn't know their order number...

Depending on your budget, it is possible to have a very nice checkout procedure indeed, but it is generally something you will have to get installed on your store as a custom modification

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Joseph Edmonds
Edmonds Commerce (http://www.edmondscommerce.co.uk)
0844 357 0201

freelance php uk (http://www.edmondscommerce.co.uk) oscommerce uk (http://www.edmondscommerce.co.uk) ecommerce uk (http://www.edmondscommerce.co.uk)

[Red Eye Media]

Our software lets the shopper add to cart and captures their details at checkout.
It then in effect, creates an account for them behind the scenes.

I always though it was madness forcing people to register before they can buy something. The way we do it captures all of the same information but feels much friendlier to the shopper.

So, definitely a no no to force the shopper to register.

[awebapart.com]

This question crops up every now and again on this forum, for example there are a few posts on this thread: Creating an account in an e-shop (http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=30089)

[J-Wholesale]

This is a very interesting question, and one that I think not enough eCommerce businesses ask. Just because most website check out processes insist upon it, and all eCommerce packages come with it as standard, doesn't mean it's automatically the right way to go. It's certainly easier for the seller if users create an account, as it makes tracking repeat business a simple process, but is it easier for the customer?

I don't think so. This was a big issue for us when we designed our own checkout procedure. In the end, we decided not to force, or even to allow users to create accounts: no usernames, and no passwords. Over the past year, we've never had a single customer query the lack of a user account, and we're in an a business where a very large proportion of our sales come from repeat customers. To my mind, user accounts for eCommerce sites that do not have all the bells and whistles of Amazon are overkill and completely unnecessary.

We got around the 'forgotten' order number by building a very simple lookup procedure for customer names into our admin section - for example, looking up 'Smith' will show us all the Smith orders in reverse order. This has proven more than adequate.

My own feeling is that so long as your order process is fast and efficient (no out of stock items, goods shipped within 24-48 hours, tracking numbers easily accessible, invoices emailed immediately), there should be no reason for a customer to create an account. A customer really only needs to 'log in' and check the status of their order when it's delayed or there's a problem. Remove the delays and the problems, and you don't need a log in.

Don't make the customer's job harder just to make your job easier.

[Mister B]

I think that J-Wholesale sums things up pretty well.

From my perspective, I gave people the option of creating an account and to date, despite having loads of orders. not one single person has bothered to open an account. That pretty much met with my expectations as when I buy online, if they want me to open an account, then I simply walk away. Just complicates a simple process IMHO.

Mister B

[Poppy Design]

Hi

Agree what has previously been said ...

As I purchaser you do not want to create an account on a new site BEFORE you even know if you want to buy something!

An easy to use checkout system that captures your data and carries this forward to the payment processor (if used) is fine.

[Christiane]

I have regular customers who come back time and time again and do not register. Some people don't want the bother of yet another password to remember.

[cycloneuk]

Since i implemented a one page checkout, my coversions increased. If my customers want to register then they can but it is not required. Forcing registration is just an extra step and another chance for them to change there mind about the purchase.

[edmondscommerce]

theres no reason why "creating an account" needs to be an extra step as you are already capturing all of the info in the order process...

the only extra field is a password...

once a customer has an account you can offer a password protected area for them to track the order, view status messages etc etc...

done well the create account process becomes an invisible part of the checkout

[cycloneuk]

theres no reason why "creating an account" needs to be an extra step as you are already capturing all of the info in the order process...

the only extra field is a password...

once a customer has an account you can offer a password protected area for them to track the order, view status messages etc etc...

done well the create account process becomes an invisible part of the checkout

That is how our system works, if they want to register then all they need to do is enter a username & password on the checkout page.

[who_me]

Our software lets the shopper add to cart and captures their details at checkout.
It then in effect, creates an account for them behind the scenes.

I always though it was madness forcing people to register before they can buy something. The way we do it captures all of the same information but feels much friendlier to the shopper.

So, definitely a no no to force the shopper to register.


I agree with this, creating an account will put people off, our systems auto create an account and send the login details with in the order confirmation email, it's up to the customer if they use it in the future..

Saying that, on some occasions creating an account can be a good thing, for example goods or services that need to be quoted for would require information before you could physically add it to a basket.

[Jason L]

We instigated a no-registration checkout alongside a registration one some years back at Porta-Charge. We noticed a significant increase in conversions and very few people now opt to register. We've also still managed to get approx one third of customers to subscribe to our newsletter. One thing to make sure of is that you can still track unique purchasers/repeat customers.

[Retail-Therapist]

Cycloneuk... I was just snooping round your website with my wife like people do round here and checking out your one page checkout when we decided to test the telephone ordering option on your checkout page to see how it works.

When we ticked the telephone ordering with an empty form nothing happened. So curiosity got the better of us and we completed the form and tried again with telephone ordering. Now it seems we have "accidentally" ordered some perfume (order number 508) and rather than telling me to phone through with my payment details during opening hours, it presented me with an invoice and sent a copy to my email.

As I didn't enter any payment details and the invoice contains no information as to haw to proceed, I'm not sure whether I've bought this item or not! :):):)

[cycloneuk]

Cycloneuk... I was just snooping round your website with my wife like people do round here and checking out your one page checkout when we decided to test the telephone ordering option on your checkout page to see how it works.

When we ticked the telephone ordering with an empty form nothing happened. So curiosity got the better of us and we completed the form and tried again with telephone ordering. Now it seems we have "accidentally" ordered some perfume (order number 508) and rather than telling me to phone through with my payment details during opening hours, it presented me with an invoice and sent a copy to my email.

As I didn't enter any payment details and the invoice contains no information as to haw to proceed, I'm not sure whether I've bought this item or not! :):):)

Hi,

We get very few phone order requests, i am working on making it a little more user friendly for the phone ordering, i usually phone the customer and take there details and run it through my virtual terminal. Your order as come through, i persume you don't want to order it lol?

[Retail-Therapist]

I'll honer the sale...ring me tomorrow after 12

[Retail-Therapist]

What's so funny is that we hadn't even looked at what we'd bought so on closer inspection can I change the order to the Blue Grass 11881, because my wife loves that?

Cheers

[thesuperhero]

I'm totally agreed with single checkout page. Account can be created after order completion with email as login and auto-generated password.
Also, there are so many websites out there and so many login and password to remember. Sometimes I even forget whether I have any account on the site.

[boho]

We capture the email address and account password as part of the one page checkout process, this means that it all goes on behind the scenes. For customers who forget various details I can also do a lookup on orders which drills down to product name, product code, email address etc, so its easy enough to find them when I need to.

[cycloneuk]

What's so funny is that we hadn't even looked at what we'd bought so on closer inspection can I change the order to the Blue Grass 11881, because my wife loves that?

Cheers

Hi,

If you like you can run the order through again and pay with your card and i'll cancel the phone order or i can ring you Monday, which ever you prefer.

[Steve2507]

When we changed our ecommerce software 2 years ago one of the main essential requirements for us was a checkout procedure that did not need an account being made by the customer before they checkout.

With VPASP the account set up is done behind the scenes when a new customer goes through checkout.

It amazes me how many sites you see where you still have to create an account first.