Checkout without account

[GDOrn]

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.

[peruprincess]

Hallelujah

[Kim]

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

[GDOrn]

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

Telephone.

[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

[GDOrn]

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.

[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,

[GDOrn]

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.

[Merlinpa1969]

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

[GDOrn]

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

Touche'.
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