25 replies to this topic

[Mike1]

Should "creating an account" be optional for an e-commerce store?
Currently, I have it as an option. Here are the numbers so far:

Out of 9080 customers, the ones who chose to create an account:
Yes 5819
No 3261

I was thinking of making it mandatory but I'm not sure.
My thinking: if they have to create an account, they may return
to the store again because they know they already have an account.
But there still are people out there who don't want their information
kept on file and might not place an order if they have to create an
account. Any thoughts on this? thanks

[jodo]

36% of your transactions are by people who choose not to open an "account." By forcing the account creation you risk losing up to 36% of your business.

Sounds like a no brainer to me.

I'm curious though, do the non-account holders create a lot of extra communication work since they cannot (I assume) check on their orders as easily?

Edited by jodo, 27 August 2006 - 01:03 PM.

[Martin C]

Even though some of those that chose not to open an account when it was optional may well be happy to open account if you made it mandatory you should still make it as easy as possible for people to buy so I would suggest you keep it as it is.

[torka]

Personally, I will not buy from a company that forces me to open an account. I'll simply abandon the shopping cart and will not come back again.

I would not ever advise requiring a customer to open an account in order to make a purchase.

My

--Torka

[jodo]

There is an interesting debate at the zen-cart forum regarding purchase without account.

[Randy]

I'm with Torka. I'll simply leave if you put enough friction in my path, just like any other potential customer will. The goal of every marketer should be to remove as much friction and anxiety from the purchasing process as possible, while still getting enough information to complete the purchase.

People are legitimately concerned about their personal data these days. There has been a lot of publicity over the last few years about how some peoples personal information have been all but handed over by 3rd parties. Even then, only a miniscule portion of the real problem has been come to light.

Here's the thing I never understood about sites/shopping carts that forced you to make an account... If they felt they needed to do that so bad why not just tie the account to the persons email address and let them know via receipt after purchase how to log in to check their order?

FWIW I've never seen a true test of what might happen with the different options. It wouldn't surprise me of MarketingExperiments.com haven't tested it at some point, but if they have I don't remember it. It would however be a very easy split test to conduct. Force one set to register, allow another set to purchase without registering and as a third choice give people the option of registering or not. Then see if the conversion ratios vary between the three.

[smc_online]

Since I subscribe to the mind set that you "do on to others online as you would have do face-2-face", I concur with Torka and Randy.

Case-in-point: Let's say you own a retail store at the mall. As customers arrive at your store and make their way throughout your isles. They see something they want, they pick it up and take it to the register to pay. Would you have your cashier ask them commit to joining your mailing list before allowing them to make a purchase? Of course not! So why do it online?

I believe is just plain bad business practice...online or offline!

[torka]

Well, there are some B&M retailers who try to collect at least your phone number from you when you make a purchase. With a little reverse lookup and a database, they could then easily tie all your purchases together with your contact info and create a nifty little analysis of your shopping habits along with some interesting demographic information.

(Of course, you can always give them a bogus phone number. Not that I've ever done anything like that, myself... )

I don't have a problem with a store that makes signing up for an account optional or that offers me a valuable incentive to sign up. I've signed up for several grocery store "discount card" programs that are essentially the same thing as "creating an account" -- because by signing up I get sale prices and discounts that are only available to card-holders. I don't mind letting them analyze my shopping habits because they're saving me money in return. (And I know I do most of my shopping at the local outlets of a large Arkansas-based discount retailer anyway, so these grocery stores won't be getting that much in the way of my shopping history to analyze in the first place. )

Online, LLBean offers me the option to create an account every time I order from them. They allege it will make my order process easier. Maybe if they offered me a more powerful incentive, I might take them up on it. As it stands, though, although I have ordered from them many times and plan to continue to do so, I haven't yet seen the need to open a new account (with a new user ID and new password that I'll have to add to my already overburdened memory). Rather, I have opted every time to continue with my order as a "guest." So far, they haven't complained.

--Torka

[smc_online]

I agree. So long as it is completely optional and that the option to "opt out" is disclosed clearly at the start.

I noticed in my post that I did not state that. So my apologies for confusing my point of view to a "not at all" mentality. I should have made that clear.

[Martin C]

I recent purchased something that allowed me to buy the product and then once the transaction was complete asked if I wanted to create an account so that the majority of the details I entered would be saved for next time. All they required was a username and password. I didn't as I doubt I will need anything else from that particular website but it is a good way of doing it.

[jamesbad]

I agree with what Martin had to say, "make it easy for them". Here's a suggestion, without requiring an account let the customer go through the check out process. Explain the benefits of having a membership and then ask them if you can use the data the just supplied to prepopulate a membership form (but not the card information), then offer them the abiity to type in their own username and password. Everything optional of course.

[outerbox]

Most e-commerce websites make it mandatory that the users create an account. I think this makes sense. I don't think anyone will shy away from purchasing because they have to create an account. The only extra step for them is choosing a password, every other piece of information they have to add in anyway to complete an order.

I'd make it mandatory if I was you.

[mcanerin]

I know I leave when I'm asked to open an account. Why?

1. It gives me the impression that you want my personal information more than my order.

2. Making a purchase is a transaction. Opening an account is a relationship. Why would I want to start a relationship before you've even shown me if you ship to my area, take my credit card type, or even have the product in stock? Not on the first date, baby...

3. WHY? WHY? WHY? What the hell is the reason for this? You want my resume? How about a picture? You should get the minimum information necessary to complete the requested transaction. Period. What does an account have to do with my purchase of a widget? If I can buy as a guest, then the answer is - nothing. The fact that some e-commerce software has this built in just proves that programmers are paid to add features, not to be marketers.

4. If you want to offer an incentive (like a discount), fine. But as it stands, most of the time there is no advantage to me to fill in my information before I've decided that I really want to buy something. That's like giving the sales clerk your wallet to hold "as a convenience" while you shop.

5. It may be illegal. Privacy laws usually dictate that you can only collect public information and the minimum amount of private information to complete the requested transaction. Since the visitor has not ordered anything yet, and may not, you have no right to collect the information "just in case they might". If they choose not to order anything at all, then what was your justification for the collection and retention of the data? There is no case law on this right now, so I don't know if it's illegal. Not a lot of juries likely to be on your side, though.

6. If I decide to buy something and then you offer to remember it for future transactions, that's legitimately helpful. If you want the information beforehand, I start to question your honesty and purpose. It' seems desperate. You are attempting to force a sense of commitment on someone without regard for their needs or interests.

7. Blaming it on the software is a cop-out, and a pathetic one at that. Whose business is it? Whose customers are they? Do you accept lousy service at a store because they say they have bad cash registers? Or do you walk over to the store that cares more about their customers needs?

I'd make it mandatory if I was you.

I could not disagree more. Just because you can do something with a piece of software doesn't mean you should. Make this a big fat NO vote from me on the topic.

Ian

Edited by mcanerin, 01 October 2006 - 09:54 PM.

[rolf]

I'm in the NO group (notice the intentional capitals)

Every time I go into Tesco I'm annoyed by their constant pushing of their Club Card and it's given me an aversion to being pushed into any relationship with a retailer. I'm not saying that I don't have a relationship with any retailers, but I strongly avoid the ones who are pushy about it.

I was in PC World a while ago and the cashier refused to accept that I didn't have to give my full name, address and telephone number along with my credit card. To cut a long story short, eventually I left the goods at the till and walked out! That's the only time I've walked out on a transaction at a B+M store for this sort of thing, but I've done it plenty of times at online stores - especially the ones who won't give me a postage price until I've opened an account.

[linux_lover]

You can fashion it to look like they arnt registering but they are!

If they havent registered with your site before, they need to enter their address, phone number, email address etc right? So log that in your database, and send them an email with what they ordered - their email address is now their site login. You should generate a password so they dont have to choose one with something like this:

CODE

function generate_password ($length = 8) {
 // start with a blank password
 $password = "";
 // define possible characters
 $possible = "0123456789bcdfghjkmnpqrstvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";    
 $i = 0;    
 // add random characters to $password until $length is reached
 while ($i < $length) {
   // pick a random character from the possible ones
   $char = substr($possible, mt_rand(0, strlen($possible)-1), 1);        
   // we don't want this character if it's already in the password
   if (!strstr($password, $char)) {
     $password .= $char;
     $i++;
   }
 }
 return $password;
}

Now if they want to order in future they can either login, so they dont have to enter their address etc again. Its like 'transparent' registration causing no inconvenience yet saving effort in the future.

I totally agree with others that you shouldnt cause people unneccessary inconvenience.