Checkout without account

03 Aug 2006, 22:14

#1

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Checkout without account

I've written a quick & dirty mod to 1.2.7. to give the impression to a customer that they are proceeding with checkout without creating an "account". In truth, as has been discussed many, many, many times here before, you can't really buy something online without giving pretty much all the info you would need to give for an account, so this mod really just changes three functional things:

- Removes the need to give an email address.
- Generates and stores a random password for the "account", essentially to prevent other people from logging into it.
- Doesn't send a 'welcome to ...' email to users who don't want an account.

Cosmetically, the password fields and 'required' asterisk are turned off when a checkbox indicating 'skip account creation' is checked.

You can see the mod in action on a bunch of sites I maintain. For example: www.bulbster.com.

It's still in progress and before I can release it, I need to trim to down to just changes made for this (there are some others in use at the moment) and update it for 1.3.1... As well as work out a few bugs. I may also alter it so that users without javascript see a more graceful form.

I highly suggest using the master password mod as well, as doing so with this mod will allow you to retrieve customer details if they gave an email address and log into their non-account.

03 Aug 2006, 22:21

#2

peruprincess

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Re: Checkout without account

Hallelujah

03 Aug 2006, 23:02

#3

kim

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Re: Checkout without account

How do you confirm the order if there is no email? What do you do if the payment is declined?

03 Aug 2006, 23:10

#4

gdorn

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Re: Checkout without account

Kim:
How do you confirm the order if there is no email? What do you do if the payment is declined?

Telephone.

03 Aug 2006, 23:13

#5

merlinpa1969

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Re: Checkout without account

Im in US,
Customer is in Australlia,

Phone call would cost a fortune,

besides with NO email address how do they get their recipt,
I can tell you first hand that customers get UPSET with no recipt showing what they are getting,

cause if you dont ship it they cant prove what it was
email is MANDATORY

03 Aug 2006, 23:17

#6

gdorn

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Re: Checkout without account

Merlinpa1969:
Im in US,
Customer is in Australlia,

Phone call would cost a fortune,

besides with NO email address how do they get their recipt,
I can tell you first hand that customers get UPSET with no recipt showing what they are getting,

cause if you dont ship it they cant prove what it was
email is MANDATORY

So if they're not in the US, make email mandatory. This isn't hard.

It's pretty clear to a customer that if they don't provide an email address, we can't email them with updates. They still have the option to call to check on an order, because the order status system is totally untouched. Since we have an in-house system to automate shipping and tracking and feed that info back to ZC, if a customer calls up looking for a tracking number, we can provide that, too.

We're getting about 20% of people opting out of giving us their email address. Clearly, this is wanted by the customer. Of course, it's impossible to tell yet how many customers we're actually gaining, but I wouldn't be surprised by a 5-10% sales increase.

03 Aug 2006, 23:59

#7

merlinpa1969

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Re: Checkout without account

I would be surprised if you are actually gaining anything, but thats neither here nor there,
I have made my stand on this subject too many times, I guess being part of a reaserch study on this back in 2002 dosnt count for much,
I mean the COmpany I worked for spent a ton on this very thing and well, they still require account,

but its your store knock yourself out,

04 Aug 2006, 00:10

#8

gdorn

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Re: Checkout without account

Merlinpa1969:
I would be surprised if you are actually gaining anything, but thats neither here nor there,
I have made my stand on this subject too many times, I guess being part of a reaserch study on this back in 2002 dosnt count for much,
I mean the COmpany I worked for spent a ton on this very thing and well, they still require account,

but its your store knock yourself out,

It's not my store. It's a company I work for. They wanted this, I made it happen. I'm not a business guy, I'm a programmer.

You were part of a research study for a specific company. Wasn't it a computer company, where most buyers are computer-savvy and therefore accustomed to creating accounts everywhere they went?

One of our stores that does not use zencart does not require email addresses. It's our primary (80%) source of income. The customers are older truck afficionados, many of whom do not trust computers and only shop online because it's the only way to get the parts they need. The lack of ability to purchase without creating an account is the #1 reason we aren't using ZC for that site.

The needs of one business are not the same as the needs of another.

04 Aug 2006, 00:14

#9

merlinpa1969

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Re: Checkout without account

No actually it was DELL computers where most users are completly clueless,,

and it was determined that users are PROGRAMED to create accounts,
If you give them a CHOICE some wont create an account, they might get a little pissed when they dont get a recipt, but the same customer will go to your competitor and buy the same thing and create an account,

without this information how in the world do you keep track of repeat business... LOL

Its kool that you did it for your company,
but as I have stated in the past, and this is just my opinion anyone that embraces this idea needs to go back to the books and read Business 101 Customer retention is the key

But wit that I am done in here before I get accused of flaming or being an &*&* again....

have a good one

04 Aug 2006, 06:04

#10

gdorn

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Re: Checkout without account

Merlinpa1969:
No actually it was DELL computers where most users are completly clueless,,

Touche'.
---------

04 Aug 2006, 07:59

#11

ronwong

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Re: Checkout without account

GDorn, I applaud your effort. Finally someone business minded is technically capable of doing something like this. This should have long available in the blue print of online shopping carts. Merlin, you have very strong attitude against it, but there are equal strength on both side of stand.

04 Aug 2006, 08:10

#12

ronwong

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Re: Checkout without account

Hi, GDorn, let us know when its ready, I will be the first to install!
I am on 1.26, I recon it should work?
Just a few queries,
When you say it will generate a random password, which means an account will be created in the background, but when another person come and purchase without checkout, will this be overwritten, or will a whole list of accounts be generated with each purchase? which means we have to do cleanup? Any issue when a few person check out together without accounts?
Would like to understand more on this great mod.
I am looking forward to a great jump in online sales!

04 Aug 2006, 14:29

#13

peruprincess

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Re: Checkout without account

You dont confirm it via telephone, this is perfect for those of us who use paypal or another processer. It saves time for the buyer.

EVERY OTHER SHOPPING CART HAS PURCHASE WITHOUT ACCOUNT, OSCOMMERCE, CUBE CART, X CART, ETC. YOU GUYS ARE THE ONLY ONES WITHOUT IT!!! :lol: :lol:

04 Aug 2006, 14:30

#14

voltage

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Re: Checkout without account

It creates accounts, but doesn't tell the customer you are setting up an account. A potential flaw is if a customer purchases an item AND includes their email when signing up. Then later, they purchase something else AND put in their same email address. Won't zencart block this and tell them they already have an account?

04 Aug 2006, 14:34

#15

merlinpa1969

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Re: Checkout without account

Kinda goes back to LYING to the customer,

04 Aug 2006, 14:45

#16

peruprincess

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Re: Checkout without account

naaah.... My customers Love it. I have it now, Not with Zen cart though:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

04 Aug 2006, 19:54

#17

gdorn

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Re: Checkout without account

voltage:
It creates accounts, but doesn't tell the customer you are setting up an account. A potential flaw is if a customer purchases an item AND includes their email when signing up. Then later, they purchase something else AND put in their same email address. Won't zencart block this and tell them they already have an account?

Yeah, that's why it's not released yet - I'm still dealing with that situation. Ultimately, I'll need to add an additional flag to indicate that an account is not an account and ignore those entries during login and account creation. As written, it won't cause a problem with a returning non-account customer - they just enter details again and it pays no attention to existing email in the db.

04 Aug 2006, 19:58

#18

gdorn

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Re: Checkout without account

Merlinpa1969:
Kinda goes back to LYING to the customer,

How so? I'm not storing any meaningful info they're not providing.

As for account creation, I'm not sure I follow - there is no table of accounts in the db. An account is a construct of zencart, all I'm doing is redefining, for some customers, what an entry in the customers table means. For customers who opted to create an account, an entry in the custemers table indicates an account. For customers who opted out of account creation, an entry in the customers table indicates a workaround for zencart's insistance that everybody have an account.

04 Aug 2006, 20:03

#19

tinas

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Re: Checkout without account

You know what I don't understand about all of you that want to do this ...

Why would you want to discourage people from returning to purchase something at the site where "I already have an account" and also the fact that by NOT giving people an account you also can't give specific people specific discounts.

Sorry but I agree with Tony on this one - by passing the create an account is basically lying to the customer. I believe that the owners of the 50+ sites I have worked on in the last 2 years would agree.

Just my opinion so take it for what it's worth.

05 Aug 2006, 04:20

#20

ronwong

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Re: Checkout without account

Princess, I think you are using too strong words, you must understand. You dont need to be here, if oscommerce has it, go ahead and use oscommerce. Zen cart is free, and you choose it and come to it, its like you choosing the subway then complain along the way you could have taken the bus. You can always take the bus, no one is stopping you.

No hard feelings.

Tina, the idea is very simple. if the world only has 100 person, maybe only 50 will do onlineshopping. the other 50 swear by physical store only. Out of the 50, 20 are reugluar shoppers, they are happy to open account, and love the convinience of saved information. That is what you are designing your site for. The 20 person. On top of the 20, I want to tap into the other 30 customers. Those who proceed all the way to check out, and decide to give up because of all the information, or those who simple is a one time purchaser. You can stick with your clientele of 20 shoppers, but I want to capture 50. That is business. Again, i said earlier, if you manage to 'force' these 30 customers to create an account, they will create, get theyir stuff and get out forever anyway, and you are left managing a bunch of dormant account anyway.