I have some questions about the best way to handle Registration with an e-commerce site.
As a user who is ready to “check out” on an e-commerce site, would you…
1.) Be turned off if you were required to “validate” your user account before you could proceed?
For example, when you register at SitePoint, you register and then you have to click on a link in your e-mail before your account is activated and can be used.
2.) Be turned off if there was no User Account or Registration at all?
Let’s say you are ready to check out, and it takes you directly to a web form where you enter your Name, Billing Address, and Credit Card details.
#1 - I think that this is fairly standard practice and I would not be ‘turned off’ by it. This also makes sure that the email addresses people are using to register with your site are not just dummy addresses.
#2 - I have seen a few sites that have done the whole ‘no registration or login’ thing but I tend to wonder about their security. It seems that the security on a site with no access control measures would be a lot harder to implement than on a site with them. Personally I think the risk out weighs the convenience.
The email validation thing is a big no-no for ecommerce. Your goal is to get people to complete their checkout, and every barrier you throw in the way decrease your chances of capturing that sale. Honestly, you don’t care if they give you a bogus email address - that’s their problem if they don’t get receipts, shipping info, etc. You just want to capture the sale.
So absolutely have them create an account and supply their email address, but don’t do anything that makes them have to leave their browser to complete the sale (such as going to get a confirmation email, etc).
My favorite ecommerce experiences are ones that give you the option of creating an account, or just do a ‘quick checkout’ (although that is a lot more coding work). Creating an account is pretty much the norm though, and people should be used to doing that.
What if the transaction is a one-time purchase (e.g. rock concert)…
What are the pros and cons of requiring the user to create an account? (Especially if they give you a “bogus@yahoo.com” email!)
The idea of a user account is usually so people can log in and see user preferences, check their shopping cart and wish list, and maybe get “premium” content.
But if the transaction is a one-time deal (e.g. Concert, Donation to Japanese Victims, Seminar, etc) what would you do?