Eliminate 'login' all together?

[hockley]

How do I eliminate customers having to login or create an account. I downloaded the 'checkout without account' mod but it still gives the customer the option to login. Is there any way to eliminate having to login and just have a shipping info page where the customer can provide basic shipping information without having to join the website or give out some of the needless information that it page asks for?

[fairestcape]

... or give out some of the needless information ...

Remember that you are conducting a business, accepting commercial transactions with customers, taking their money, and dealing with sensitive data transfers.

Having this data stored has several purposes:

1. The data is legal proof that someone of a stated identity and address has transacted business with you. This is required for legal contractual and tax purposes. (In the UK, Distance Selling Regulations require such data to be captured - otherwise you are breaking the law.)

2. The contact details enable you to contact the customer in the event that there is a problem with their order.

3. The archive of activity (past purchases, how they were paid for, where the goods were delivered to), are - in my opinion - essential for the orderly and responsible conducting of business. If there is ever a dispute about delivery, returns, refunds, non-payment etc. it's nice to know that ZC has kept all the details - and both YOU and the CUSTOMER can see these records.

[Steven300]

With COWOA installed, you can implement this change which will completely bypass the login option. You will then need to remove the login link from your header and also change some of the wording here and there. It sounds like you might also be looking for a single-page checkout. You can search the Free Software Add Ons section for mods related to that. You will probably find though that a lot of the same information is requested because, as Fairestcape rightly stated, the information is important.

[fairestcape]

Yes, COWOA is an option for "faster" checkout...

... but much of the same info is going to be asked for.

There is a lot of evidence to show that online shops with the most streamlined checkout procedures do in fact perform better than shops where the process is more cumbersome.

I do agree that if the process is made more slick, it will have a beneficial effect on sales.

On one of our stores, we use fast and easy checkout and (so far) have seen a 6% increase in concluded orders.

[hockley]

Thanks for the responses,
I know the information is important, some of the information it asks for such as birth date I think is needless. I don't see a need to have to create an account either, I just want to make it as simple as possible.

[Steven300]

Okay well information such as that can be needless. I got the impression from your first post you were wanting to ask hardly anything. Take a look in Admin -> Config -> Customer Details.