Accounts?

[MDS]

What are your feelings on registering to order online.

I have considered it, but to be perfectly honest when I shop online, given a choice I would buy from a shop where it is not required-too much trouble.

Quick & simple works for me.

Does it lose the casual buyer?

Personally I think it does

Mick

[pinbrook]

I agree, it irritates the c*** out of me when a site insists you have to register.

I often go elsewhere.

If you insist on people registering you have to give them a benefit, and not say it is for the customer's convenience to track delivery etc. I always view registering as an underhand method of adding my email to a mailing list or even selling it on.

[jont]

Can you imagine M&S setting up a turnstyle on the high street doors wanting you to fill in a questionnaire before allowing you inside .... or Asda making you supply your full details before they start processing your cart of groceries (the look on the peoples faces in the queue behind when you forget your password to buy a pint of milk would be priceless though)

Fair enough - some products may require you to be registered or be a members only club/area (how that stands with open trade laws in the EU is another arguement) but for everything else it has to be a nuisance that drives some people away. Anything that slows the process of getting the customer to part with their cash has to be a bad concept for the most.

I tend to hit the back button if I am faced with a lengthy registration form as I rightly or wrongly associate that with a deluge of spam in the email and "special offer" magazines landing on the door step a month down the line.

[steveaich]

Have you noticed that shops that ask you to register also hide their delivery costs till after you have registered?

I always buy from their competitors, not from them.

[Kermy]

I think that the majority of shoppers are used to registering before being able to checkout. Take the big names for example - Amazon, eBay, Tesco - accounts are always required for these stores.

The big difference is that these big companies use the data to heavily personalise the storefront. A lot of shoppers see this as an advantage, and so don't mind surrendering their personal details. If the site simply takes them for no other reason, that is the key factor that will turn people away.

The other big factor - one that affects all Actinic owners, I would say - is the ease of checking out. I would happily create an account and pay for goods, even if I knew it was a one-time purchase, if the process was quick. With Actinic, it takes at least 3 steps to checkout wihtout even being registered. Hopefully that is something V8 (9?) will address.

[jont]

The big difference is that these big companies use the data to heavily personalise the storefront. A lot of shoppers see this as an advantage, and so don't mind surrendering their personal details.

Not if you share a ClubCard and other half see's what you have been buying

[Ruthie]

I think it depends on what information is asked for when registering. If it's just your delivery & invoice details you need to put these in anyway when you order.

If you have a site that allows people to register it usually means that it keeps their details so they don't have to re-enter everything if they come back to buy something else and it also means that the customer is only registered once on the database, making site administration a lot easier.

My view is that if you only ask for relevant information during the registration process and make it quick and easy to follow it can be a benefit to the customer and also to the site administrator!

Ruth

[chris ashdown]

We spend a fortune in getting people to our sites, why put any reason in the way to stop them looking through the site and hopefully buying, with Amazon and Tesco's you have already got a big idea of what they are selling and propably 90% certain that they will meet your requirements, therefore you would be more tollerant to a request to register first

[george]

Bought something from Misco a few weeks ago. Had at least one email every week since. Grrrr.

Handy when you go to buy again with companies though and yer info's already `there`.


Wouldn't put me off buying, no, but just be carefull with the wee boxes you tick, or, don't tick. (Tick this to receive, like, millions of emails, etc).

[Darren B]

Funny someone is running a similar poll in on the nochex forum.

Me personally will tolerate the usual question needed to satisfy an order but i draw the line at more than one contact number, income, dob e.t.c as these are marketing tools which means i am likely to get more junk mail.

Cheers
Darren