Merlinpa1969:
just for curiosity sake, WHY,
is it any easier to type the information in on the admin side as opposed to the catalog side?
It's not that it's
easier to type in the information on the admin side rather than the catalog side.
Let's say for example I wanted to restrict who can purchase from my store. That means I don't want random visitors creating accounts. To get an account, a customer contacts me, provides me with their details, and I then create the account for them.
Since I manage everything in my store from the admin side - including editing and deleting customers - I would also like to be able to add customers from the admin side. It would be odd and somewhat inefficient to be adding customers on the frontend and managing everything else from the backend.
Also, if I were to create accounts from the frontend, that would mean I have to leave the account creation page enabled/active which in turn means anyone can access it. Even if I don't provide a link to the account creation page (which I wouldn't), if someone knows the site is running off Zen Cart (which isn't hard to figure out) they could easily go directly to that page and create themselves an account.
Another thing to consider is, if I were to develop an e-commerce site for someone other than myself using Zen Cart (where they wanted to restrict customers as in the example above), I'm sure they would like to be able to manage everything from the admin side as well. It would be difficult to explain why you need to create accounts from the frontend and manage everything else from the backend.