Registration workflow

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1

I am building an e-commerce site and could use some feedback on how I do my Registration module.

For some reason I got it into my head that I want to require Users to “activate” their accounts before they can move forward.

Here is a high-level use-case for what I was envisioning…

Pre-Condition:
The “Visitor” decides to “Check Out”.

Create New Customer Account:
[FONT=“Courier New”]At {Authenticate Customer}, if the User has not registered…

  • The System instructs the User to create a Customer Account.
  • The System switches to a Secure Connection
  • The User enters a Username.
  • The User enters a Password.
  • The User accepts the User Agreement and Privacy Policy.
  • The System send an Activation E-mail to the Primary E-mail
  • The System displays instructions on how to “activate” the Username/Account.
  • The Customer is required to click on a link in the Activation E-mail’s body to validate the Primary E-mail.
  • The Customer clicks on the link.
  • An e-mail is sent back to the System.
  • The System confirms that new Customer’s Username/Primary E-mail address is valid.
  • The System “activates” the Customer’s Account.
  • The System sends an e-mail notifying the Customer that his/her Customer Account has been activated.
  • The System instructs the Customer - in the e-mail - to return to the website and log in.
  • The Customer returns to OURSTORE’s website.
  • The Customer logs in to his/her account.
    The use-case continues at the next step in the “Checkout Process”…
    [/FONT]

This sequence of events is pretty common on sites where you create a user account or e-mail account. (I believe SitePoint requires users to “activate” their accounts too.)

It may be less common for e-commerce sites, but I like the extra steps because it should reduce spambots - and jerks - creating bogus accounts.

It also helps ensure that you have a valid e-mail address!!

After the “Visitor” registers and becomes a “Customer”, the checkout process would continue and the System would present a series of screens asking the Customer to enter his/her…

  • Contact Information
  • Billing Address
  • Shipping Address
  • Payment Info

Questions:

1.) Is it bad adding in an extra step that requires the User to “activate” his/her account before they can continue the Checkout process?

2.) Should I ask for things like First Name, Middle Initial, Last Name, Age, etc at the same time the User is creating an account??

(I was going to save this for later, because I figure it is better to get the User registered, and then after they do that, and I know they are a serious shopper, then I can dive into all of the details of their Name, Address, Billing & Shipping Info, Payment Details, etc.)

What do you think??

TomTees

2

No, you do not want to force the customer to do that on an e-commerce site.

The idea whenever you want to sell something is to have as few steps to complete the sale as possible. For every additional step, you face the risk of the customer deciding to not complete the sale.

As you know most purchases is done in the instance of the moment, you see a product and think “wow, that looks great” and decide to buy it. Due to that you want to make certain the customer will be able to easily complete the purchase before they decide its not certain they really need the product anyway.

This is your desired checkout flow:

  1. The customer view the shopping cart, before clicking on checkout.

  2. If not logged into their account already, show two options:
    a) Login to their account with email and password fields.
    b) Create new account with email and password fields.
    (Optional you can only show one set with email and password fields and then use a radio to select what they want, but in general we found out having two sets of fields converted better as the customer did not get confused (guess its mainly the customers that were not that data savvy that stopped up for a while when we only used one set of fields)

  3. The customer fills in their billing information, and shipping information if its different. Then they should chose the payment option, and if its by CC fill in their credit card information.

  4. You show them their order information for review, if they press confirm you charge them. (or forward them to their payment option for payment etc).

While your concern about the user entering wrong username, skip that and use email instead. But remember to confirm the email they first entered by having them enter it again on the order page (only if they create an account). As long as we are talking about an order people usually make certain they enter the correct information.

Regarding someone starting an order but not following through, that happens, but if it happens a lot then you need to look into your order process as it is usually a clear indication to that something is wrong with the process.

3

Valid point.

As you know most purchases is done in the instance of the moment, you see a product and think “wow, that looks great” and decide to buy it. Due to that you want to make certain the customer will be able to easily complete the purchase before they decide its not certain they really need the product anyway.

True.

This is your desired checkout flow:

  1. The customer view the shopping cart, before clicking on checkout.

  2. If not logged into their account already, show two options:
    a) Login to their account with email and password fields.
    b) Create new account with email and password fields.
    (Optional you can only show one set with email and password fields and then use a radio to select what they want, but in general we found out having two sets of fields converted better as the customer did not get confused (guess its mainly the customers that were not that data savvy that stopped up for a while when we only used one set of fields)

I think Amazon.com does that with the radio buttons?!

While your concern about the user entering wrong username, skip that and use email instead. But remember to confirm the email they first entered by having them enter it again on the order page (only if they create an account). As long as we are talking about an order people usually make certain they enter the correct information.

Okay, but let’s say someone screws up and types in a wrong e-mail or they possibly put in a bogus e-mail.

Now I would have an issue because while they could register, I would have no way to contact them unless they gave a valid Tele No and/or Address.

While I totally see what you say about “minimize the # of steps to checkout”, I also still worry about invalid e-mail addresses due to type-o’s and also spambots.

Doesn’t anyone else add in the “User Account Activation” thingy via e-mail for e-commerce?

TomTees