Registering to buy something - Why?

[aotagain]

People don't complain online, they walk (or click!). Most have got used to unanswered emails if they offer any 'advice'.

There's a well known jeans company merchant where you can't see the jeans, because the pictures suck - but they don't seem bothered when you tell them - they have 'loyal' customers apparently. Only reason I was loyal is that I happen to know what jeans I wanted and the price was low.

I think what usually happens is that if a company is doing OK, they won't bother. 'We haven't noticed any problems' is par for the course.

No company that I have ever contacted knows their loss rate at different stages of customers buying or trying to buy, or at least they weren't telling me !

[aotagain]

Going on the comments above, why excatly is it such a problem for people to register their details???

Its a problem depending on how its done and there seem to be lots of different ways to do it. Some considerably more clumsy and annoying than others.

A lot of shoppers now know exactly what information you really need to buy something and what information is 'extra' ie. not requested and not needed by the customer.

Some merchants have a twin process: 'Just get on with it' and 'Give us a bit more information if you want to come back again and make it easy'.

Unfortunately there are a lot who make you do the second. I've dropped several carts miles before checkout because of this and so have loads of shoppers. You need to know how much is being dropped before you know whether your requests are losing customers.

All merchants have to do is ask of a customer 'how do you want to do this ?'

Losing me is bad for a merchant actually - I'm a rapid shopper - give me a rapid buy and I'm anybody's ! - stick something that I think is unnecessary in the way and I'm lost for good. There's a lot like me out there (well my wife, her friend, my mate Grah....).

[deadgoodundies]

Ok fair enough you say you are a rapid shopper but as I said choosing something like a login and password is a 2 sec affair so why would you not want to do it?

Take our customer registration page for example

https://www.deadgoodundies.com/register.php

everything is on the same page so it's not like you have to click to another page to choose a login and pw and 98% is relevant to the customer the only bits that are extra (and for our benefit is the where did you hear about us)

So you would have to fill in those details anyway regardless of whether you had to "register" an account or not

Im not having a go at anyones opinions on the matter but I fail to see where the difference is between two merchants

Merchant 1: Ok give us your details so we can send you your order.

Merchant 2: Ok give us your details so we can send you your order and a login and password to make it easier next time

If you gave a customer a option of registering or not registering then it's one more thing they have to think about and one more thing the merchant has to explain because you would need a paragraph explaining the benefits of registering an account against not doing so.

So in my opinion you either have to go one way or the other but not both

[aotagain]

[QUOTE=justhomdotcom;358802]choosing something like a login and password is a 2 sec affair so why would you not want to do it?

Because I and many other people already have a squillion of them - its a big problem.
Its not a problem to decide to take a direct route.

(Also, any usernames and passwords are strongly associated with some sort of email coming at some point in the future and a lot of people will shy away from that. It doesn't matter how much explanation you put. Username + password = nuisance + probable emails, in a lot of people's experience).

I get the logic from a merchants point of view, but that's exactly what it is - a merchants point of view.

The choice between the 2 options is easy: do I want another username and password, do I want to have to tick and untick boxes, do I want to even think about it or not, or do I just want to buy now ?

In one store:
"Buy what you've got in your basket with the minimum of anything". Yes please, because I only want one gadget / posh frock for the Mrs. etc. etc.

But as I buy CD's a lot:
"Buy what you want now and get a username and password so its easy next time"
Yes please - I guess that will be useful.

The big problem is that it could of course be completely the reverse for someone else, but as a merchant you don't know who you've got. All you know is there's a big mixture out there.

Plus a lot of us grumpy old men have loads of dosh

[deadgoodundies]

[QUOTE=aotagain;358805]

Because I and many other people already have a squillion of them - its a big problem.
Its not a problem to decide to take a direct route.

I get the logic from a merchants point of view, but that's exactly what it is - a merchants point of view.

Agreed that some people don't like it but at the same time i'd say that just as many if not more aren't that bothered (if bothered about it at all) and lets face facts the majority of shoppers use the same logins and passwords for different sites (totally silly to do so but thats what a lot of people do)
Every merchant is bound to be also a customer of someone elses as well, I know I do all my shopping online and generally from the same places each time. I can't think of any site that I shop on that DOESN'T ask you to register an account , it's just a natural part of online shopping to me.

[km8]

Going on the comments above, why excatly is it such a problem for people to register their details???
...
So is it a real problem or just basically paranoia

It doesn't matter why people don't want to do it - some don't and that's a fact. I'm one of them.

If people don't want to register and you won't sell to them unless they do, you absolutely are losing sales, whether they complain or not.

You say asking them to choose is putting another obstacle in the way of a sale but you proceed to put a different obstacle in the way instead - that seems a bit strange.

I have objections to registering that are valid to me - maybe they're not sensible, maybe they're paranoid, maybe I'm a dinosaur - but they are reasons for me not to buy from a site where registration is required if I have an alternative.

[ian-d]

This is especially the case when you don't think you'll use that merchant again anyway, i.e. one off purchase etc. Customers simply don't want to register and have details stored just for the one-off purchase.

This research was done to death on the many shopping cart forums and each time the results came back that forcing registration was loosing between 10-40% of customers, especially in areas where more choice of merchants was available.

I agree that its only adding an email/username and password, and takes 2 seconds, but bare in mind that if you are a new customer, you don't know the merchant that well and it takes a certain level of trust to allow them to store your information (i.e. marketing campaigns etc), and possibly your credit card details.

[aotagain]

I have to admit to a certain amount of paranoia about losing customers (from point of view of our classifieds site). The scary thing is when you realise that your paranoia seems to reflect reality.

The debate really isn't about the customers that don't mind filling in stuff at the checkout - its about the ones that do, whether that's 40% or 10%. Anyway if you make it easy for them, they'll probably do what you want as a merchant eventually anyway, and then they'll be on your mailing list because they want to be.

I know we don't sell products, but a couple of things have happened that keep customer loss at the top of our agenda.... and they would if we sold stuff as well.

Firstly, we were 'advised' early on (2002ish) to automate the payment process for advert placement and get customers to pay online, as we were on the internet. We didn't (call it gut-feeling if you like), and subsequently discovered that around 40% of our customers preferred to pay over the phone via a call-back. Its now down to around 20%. Goodness knows who we would have lost if we'd forced the issue.

Secondly, we have just discovered (shock!) that quite a few customers would pay to be able to fax adverts to us and we also know that a few have actually not sent in adverts because they couldn't be bothered to type. (They've been doing faxes for years with the press and they frequently work with hand-written lists of parts, specifications etc).

No, its not as simple as a registration, but its all to do with getting to grips with your customers on their terms.

imo the widely publicised high % loss of customer shopping carts is actually a big opportunity for companies to get it right, by really focussing on the customer, rather than saying "you are very important to our business" and then treating you like one of their database entry administrators.

I need a blog...

[sgpratley]

The biggest issue is with first time customers. Until they've shopped with you once they don't know whether registering with you will result in a barrage of spam or other hoops they'll have to jump through.

They've no idea whether they'll want to shop with you again, so there's no value to them having to remember another username & password.

A quick poke into today's orders on one of my client's sites:

49% new registered customers
14% returning registered customers
37% chose not to register

This is a fashion accessories site that would probably have fewer repeat buyers than Justhom, but still, that's a hell of a number deciding against it.
Checkout without registering is the last option presented on the page after the basket so I doubt that's skewing the numbers.

[gunneradt]

what f**cks me off is I go to a choose a password and it says 'no' it must be 9 charcaters with at least one number blah blah blah

If I want to use a 6 letter password it's becvause I want to....and because I can remember it.

[nillerrune]

Hi justhomdotcom

I read about a Danish shop that change their site so the customer did not have register to buy from them. They had an increase in sales of 5 or 6% when they changed it if I remember correct.

Why not offer the customer to register when they have completed the sale and maybe offer them 5 or 10% discount next time they buy from you if they sign up to your newsletter or similar?

Personally I try to avoid sites where I have to register, not because I am paranoid. Properly more because I am lazy and can't be bother if I can find it for the same price somewhere else where I do not have to registrar. Also from experience, when you have to register then you have problems finding a username or password which the shop accept.

[sgpratley]

The fact is, it takes all sorts.

Some people are paranoid in a way that makes them register so they can see all their orders and invoices
Some people are paranoid in a way that makes them avoid registering at all.

Good e-commerce design is about building sites that help the nervous buyers without putting hurdles in front of the ones who are in a hurry. There's no perfect answer and it even changes over time, especially round Xmas when more occasional buyers are online.

There was a great presentation in Miami about designing for "Persona's" , I'll try to dig out the notes, there was a site or two they recommended. Also, if you can get hold of a first edition of 'Don't Make Me Think' by Steve Krug, there's some good stuff in there about how to user test your site without spending a fortune, and without assuming everyone is like you.

[Azam.net]

Interesting Stephen.

I, too, dislike having to register everywhere and companies should think more about user-experience than building mailing lists. I tried to download a trial version of Adobe Acrobat yesterday and had to fill in a L-O-N-G form and then confirm the email they sent, then go through a couple more pages before I eventually got to the download page.

It's used simply and clearly to build up a mailing list and I don't like it. For example, had to untick all these boxes to not subscribe to various Adobe mailing lists. And, of course, Adobe will start bombarding people with emails at around the time the 30 day free trial is over to encourage them to buy the full version.

If we give away something free on our sites, we never force people to register. Glad Google gives sites a poorer Quality Score if they force registration, as they do make the internet a less welcoming environment.

[deadgoodundies]

Hi justhomdotcom
Why not offer the customer to register when they have completed the sale and maybe offer them 5 or 10% discount next time they buy from you if they sign up to your newsletter or similar?

Well it's certainly something for us to look into, I do know that because of the ecommerce software we use the way we would have to work it (because we need to track coupon usuage on a per customer basis) would be that if we were to offer customers to checkout without registering an account then we wouldn't be able to give "non-registering" customers the ability to use discount coupons so in it's own way that would be an incentive for customers to register but then might put people off shopping because of having to register.

Funny old world this (never an up without a down)

[Qui Gon Jinn]

Why not offer the customer to register when they have completed the sale

Good thread to start this one is.

I was doing a bit of shopping online today & basically exited & went elsewhere where I was required to register first.

The above quote giving the choice / option of registering after the actual sale seems a sensible solution, that way at least the sale has been secured first, is there anyone here who has experimented with BOTH pre & post purchase registrations with regard to any registrations & any uplifts?

With regard to logins & passwords if customers are registering across multiple sites is there a likelehood that they are using very similar if the the same for any of them? Maybe register them automatically after the sales process with a double opt in included with the sales confirmation email containing randomised login & password details.