Shop as guest. Proceed without loging in.
12 Oct 2010 - 2:40am
13 replies
1559 reads
Florian Fiechter
2010
In recent usability testing of an e-commerce site in Sweden we confirmed the low motivation of signing up for an account. We worked on the problem and brainstormed a solution to “shop as a guest”.
One of the stakeholders is concerned about fraud and swindles, especially writing a wrong email address which we need for order confirmation. Some wrong person would get a confirmation about an order which he/she has not placed and contact the media about our uncontrolled customer data.
Any of you got advice or experience with this?
Get the feed
Comments
why don't you just put double opt in in place to get rid of the issue.
This clearly identifies fraudulent use to the false receiver and order
will not proceed unless the receiver opts in via link in mail.
This works well for SNs registration processes and most likely will in
your case.
best
Hendrik
Am 12.10.2010 um 10:03 schrieb Fflo:
> Normal > 0 > > 21 > > false > false > false > > SV > X-NONE > X-NONE > > MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 > > /* Style Definitions */ > table.MsoNormalTable > {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; > mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; > mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; > mso-style-noshow:yes; > mso-style-priority:99; > mso-style-qformat:yes; > mso-style-parent:""; > mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; > mso-para-margin-top:0cm; > mso-para-margin-right:0cm; > mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; > mso-para-margin-left:0cm; > line-height:115%; > mso-pagination:widow-orphan; > font-size:11.0pt; > font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; > mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; > mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; > mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; > mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; > mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; > mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; > mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; > mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} > > In recent > usability testing of an e-commerce site in Sweden we confirmed the low > motivation of signing up for an account. We worked on the problem and > brainstormed a solution to “shop as a guest”. > > One of the stakeholders > is concerned about fraud and swindles, especially writing a wrong
> email address > which we need for order confirmation. Some wrong person would get a
> confirmation > about an order which he/she has not placed and contact the media
> about our > uncontrolled customer data. > > Any of you > got advice or experience with this? > > (((P
A further issue that we have found is that our average internet users abandon when they should send password to their inbox, leave the site and then come back to enter their received password. A very complicated procedure for an average internet user.
You need not to conduct usability testing and brainstorm to arrive to a trivial decision to allow customers to shop without registration. This is a conditio sine qua non for a modern e-commerce website.
Simply point the stakeholder to abundant publications stating that guest shopping must be the primary option in the checkout process…
> A further issue that we have found is that our average internet users abandon when they should send password to their inbox, leave the site and then come back to enter their received password. A very complicated procedure for an average internet user.
Kill this procedure...
I've tried two online shops that are not using login to purchase.
www.bababebe.com and www.japonshop.com
(this second had already add register feature)
This is great for people who doesn't like to register, but I think register must be an option, for people that wants to track the shopping they made.
This issue reminds me of the "The $300 Million Button"
http://www.uie.com/articles/three_hund_million_button/
The $ 300 million Button story got me inspired and thusI tested customers experience. I was convinced that it will increase conversion rate. But, after 1 month did we not see any difference. It might be too early and I haven't tested yet if any other problem along the way could be the issue.
Or that the $300 million difference was caused by factors other than the button addition. It's a great story to tell executives or other decision makers to bring them over to good UX, but make sure they're not statisticians first or they'll ask about whether this £300 million was confounded (and the article doesn't go into any detail about this or any other post-intervention changes).
Alan James Salmoni
On Mon, Mar 28, 2011 at 4:12 PM, Florian Fiechter <florian_fiechter@yahoo.com> wrote:
May I take a look at your website, please?
Do you not just have 2 options?
At the end of the guest process you can make an account?
If the problem is someone putting in the wrong email address then have a javascript checker to make sure the email is well-formed and potentially ask people to restate their email address? Is it common behaviour that people are adding their incorrect email addresses?
G
Graham, the absurd idea of a “stakeholder” was that some mythical malefactor could enter someone else real email address and then the receiver of the order confirmation email would contact the media about their uncontrolled customer data…
I would start with reviewing your analytics/server stats to see where else your users may be leaving the checkout. Do you only display shipping costs when they have entered a shipping address? Many B2C users shop to compare total costs... They may get to that screen and find that your shipping is not as competitive as another source they may be considering. Do you have a coupon field in the checkout? Again you may find that users stop and think about how/where can they get a coupon. Without registration filtering these types of users out, your whole checkout is now likely in need of review to optimize for guest users.
The case of the 300 million button was with a large US B2C retailer. While it is not mentioned in the article, some people have speculated that it is BestBuy. I don't know if that is true, but if we use them as an example you can compare your organization and it's goals to theirs. Is your site a B2C retailer? Does your target audience have a similar profile? If yes, then you can look at other aspects of your checkout experience and how they differ/compare to BestBuy. If your context is different then you may also have other confounding factors that impact the success of your version of guest checkout. If you are a B2B then you likely have many fields that are confusing or unclear to first time shoppers. Again lowering the bar to get into checkout is only the first step for many B2B organizations. If you share the link to your site I'm sure that you can get many expert opinions, but your best option is to begin testing the rest of your checkout with your target audience.
Another consideration is that if Best Buy is the $300 mil company, some of the information customers typically get in the Checkout process appears on listing pages and product detail pages. They have integrated shipping cost calculation and availability information into the step just before customers add items to their Cart -- which means that they are probably qualifying customers *before* they even enter the Checkout process. They know what all of the costs and availability are, so they are more likely to complete Checkout because they have finished the comparison shipping process.
Lija
If we talk about e-commerce we have to talk always about doubts, trust and distrust - we have to keep in mind all this experience and feelings are mutual.
When I think about the check-out's alternatives I should and will suggest my clients and how he should implement they - I take always two important points into consideration the client's brand and how well he is known.
Customers do not like being forced to register with the site in order to purchase an item. Initially, many of first time visitors are skeptical and doubtful. I have spoken to several customers, they said they would simply go to another site or drive to a store to find the same item, simply because they are being asked to register. Many users associate registration with potentially receiving SPAM or junk mail. That doesn’t mean that it’s not a NO-GO combining your newsletter abo and your checkout process – but you have to do it clear, polite and obvious, and tell your customers and potential subscribers their benefits to order your newsletter. And tell him in advance how often you will send him your newsletter – perhaps you can offer him the opportunity to order just the next issue.
Perhaps this article might be helpful for one or two ... http://ux4dotcom.blogspot.com/2011/01/shopping-carts-check-out-there-is-often.html