Anonymous/Guest Checkout

I have been reading the forums all morning for a solution to this with no conclusion, so I thought I'd start a thread for those of you who would like this and like discussing the options and work-arounds for accomplishing this. Let's brainstorm!

I was thinking of adding another payment module, and then somehow assigning some arbitrary password to the given e-mail address, like "guest!" or something. As we know, the only difference between an account checkout and a supposed guest checkout is the login password, which amazingly drives people away from a checkout process. I watch this funnel in my metrics all the time.

Any Zen Cart wizzes out there have an idea for me to do this? In essence, an account will be created for the "guest" but without them knowing it, just to appease the current checkout process as it seems it is required to be logged in to purchase, unfortunately. I was going to basically duplicate the current checkout process as another option where "behind the scenes" the user is registered.

Any more ideas/help with this? Thanks in advance.

Wouldn't it be easier to use the fast and easy checkout from the free add-on section? That way, your customers will not be needing an account to make the order.

larf2k:

I have been reading the forums all morning for a solution to this with no conclusion, so I thought I'd start a thread for those of you who would like this and like discussing the options and work-arounds for accomplishing this. Let's brainstorm!

I was thinking of adding another payment module, and then somehow assigning some arbitrary password to the given e-mail address, like "guest!" or something. As we know, the only difference between an account checkout and a supposed guest checkout is the login password, which amazingly drives people away from a checkout process. I watch this funnel in my metrics all the time.

Any Zen Cart wizzes out there have an idea for me to do this? In essence, an account will be created for the "guest" but without them knowing it, just to appease the current checkout process as it seems it is required to be logged in to purchase, unfortunately. I was going to basically duplicate the current checkout process as another option where "behind the scenes" the user is registered.

Any more ideas/help with this? Thanks in advance.

Unfortunately, your proposal is awash with fundamental PRACTICAL errors - mostly relating to user security and user ID purposes.

Regardless of any proposed "anonymous" checkout, the simple fact is that an order has to:

1. be ordered by an identifiable person, so that payment can be verified and tied to one specific individual.
2. That whatever has been ordered, can be sent to a physical address (not applicable if only virtual products are being sold.)

Both requirements are fundamental and cannot be avoided. It is impossible to process a payment from an "anonymous" person -and it is also quite ridiculous to imagine that a parcel can be delivered to an "anonymous" address.

At SOME POINT... these details need to be collected, and in the case of the payment part, rigorously verified before it is approved.

The growing trend for more streamlined checkout has been well-thought out by scores of experienced and expert zencart users over the years, and the result is Numinix's FEC module, as pointed out by andreitero.