Customer account

[stonda]

Hi.
Some months ago I asked for this question about the customer account,
More and more clients ask for a "real" customer account, means the possibility to log on line at the beginning of the process or whenever they want, the possibility to modify the password, to retrieve their order on line, as we have now on numbers of ecommerce software
and I would like to know, today, where is the developpment about this. I know that this problem was on the whishlist. Is it realistic to think that wa can get this working soon ?
Thanks

[TraceyG]

Hi,

This is something we are looking at at the moment and may well be in the next major release of the software.

[greyhound]

Customer account

Any idea when the next major release will be? My clients are asking for this now

[guccij]

Other threads hinted at a v10 in a year's time. Or longer.

[bamboo]

IMO you guys need to be informing your client of the very real downsides of 'customer accounts' unless they are B2B.
Putting another 'block' on the path from landing to sale has the biggest negative impact on sales in my experience.

I have customer accounts with Amazon & Ebuyer because there is no option and they usually have what I want in stock at the best price/delivery time combination. With both the only time I have ever changed anything was when I got on top of the e-mail mess and had to change the contact e-mail on both sites.

For anything else I want to buy online as soon as the site starts asking me to 'create my account' I and thousands like me click away to the next store.
In the B2B world customer accounts are a way of life so there they are not such an issue.

Just my 2 cents worth.

[RuralWeb]

Clients who ask for this are idiots who have never shopped online IMO

[NicNac]

Very early stages, but I'm looking at creating a new form just for customer registrations.

The easiest way I've found (so far) to do it is to create a new Section called Register Now or similar, then create a new product within that section. Give it a name like 'Please enter your details below'.

Obviously, it's not actually a product, so I've taken out the quantity box for that section (placed it on confirmation page rather than product page). I also unticked the checkboxes for allowing online purchase and adding the product to best sellers and new products listings.

I then created a new product layout, and replaced whatever was in there with the code below. Which basically is the code taken from the contact us page.

 
      <form method="post" action="<Actinic:Variable Name="SendMailPageURL"/>">
<input type="hidden" name="RANDOM" value="<actinic:variable name='Random'/>" />
          
<actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22IsHostMode%22%20%2f%3e">
   <!-- Hidden field when in trial mode -->
   <input type="hidden" name="SHOP" value="<Actinic:Variable Name="HiddenFields"/>" />
</actinic:block>

<actinic:variable Name="ValidationError"/>
  
<table cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0">
   <tr> 
      <td width="15">&nbsp;</td>
      <td colspan="2">
         <strong><Actinic:Variable Name="MailFormHeader"/></strong><br /> 
         <br />
      </td>
   </tr>
   <tr> 
      <td>&nbsp;</td>
      <td>
         <span class="actrequired"><Actinic:Variable Name="MailFormName"/> *</span> 
      </td>
      <td>
         <input type="text" name="Name" size="50" value="<Actinic:Variable Name="MailFormNameValue"/>" /> 
      </td>
   </tr>
   <tr> 
      <td>&nbsp;</td>
      <td>
         <span class="actrequired"><Actinic:Variable Name="MailFormSubject"/> *</span>
      </td>
      <td>
         <input type="text" name="Subject" size="50" value="<Actinic:Variable Name="MailFormSubjectValue"/>" /> 
      </td>
   </tr>
   <tr> 
      <td>&nbsp;</td>
      <td>
         <span class="actrequired"><Actinic:Variable Name="MailFormEmail"/> *</span>
      </td>
      <td>
         <input type="text" name="EmailAddress" size="50" value="<Actinic:Variable Name="MailFormEmailValue"/>" /> 
      </td>
   </tr>
   <tr> 
      <td valign="top">&nbsp;</td>
      <td valign="top">
         <span class="actrequired"><Actinic:Variable Name="MailFormMessage"/> *</span>
      </td>
      <td>
         <textarea type="text" rows="10" cols="45" name="Message"><Actinic:Variable Name="MailFormMessageValue"/></textarea>
      </td>
   </tr>
   <tr> 
      <td valign="top">&nbsp;</td>
      <td valign="top">&nbsp;</td>
      <td>
         <input type="submit" name="ACTION" value="<Actinic:Variable Name="MailFormSendButton"/>" />
      </td>
   </tr>
   <tr> 
      <td valign="top">&nbsp;</td>
      <td colspan="2" valign="top">
         <Actinic:Variable Name="RequiredFields"/> <span class="actrequired"><Actinic:Variable Name="Highlighted"/></span>.
      </td>
   </tr>
</table>

</form>

I've then given this new 'product' the new layout, and hey presto, the form appears.

Obviously, these fields will need to be edited a great deal to include the new fields etc. My thought then was that I could *just* copy the MailForm.pl script, changing it where necessary for the new fields etc and renaming it.

My question to all you experts is this. As I said, this is very early stages. Am I going to run into some as yet unforeseen huge problem that will stop this from working?

Thanks

[RuralWeb]

I presume you have tried this http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=44574

[NicNac]

I presume you have tried this http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=44574

Hi Mal,

Yep, I've seen that and I did pass it onto my boss as the 'best' solution if you like. But he didn't think it was too clear from a customers point of view. Which I can kinda see where he's coming from.

So, the next options was to create a clone if you like of the Contact Us form, capturing all the info we need in there to create a new account and emailing it to where it needs to go (one of the admin bods who'd then create the new account in Actinic).

No dice?

[RuralWeb]

There was a thread the other day about creating custom forms and gabe has published a guide so check them out for an easier method

[NicNac]

There was a thread the other day about creating custom forms and gabe has published a guide so check them out for an easier method

Ok will do, thanks Mal

[stonda]

Hi
Derek, perhaps that the customer account will have a" big negative impact" on my sales, but after asking my client, in a study market what they would like to get on my website, I got about 60 % of them who asked for this ! They want to have the possibility to know the status of the order, to be able to print an old invoice, to send an order similar to one they sent before without needed to create a new one (just duplicate) etc etc. So when your clients asked for something and when all your competitors proposed this, what is the solution ?
When you have a customer account on the site, it is always possible to allow a client to send an order without creating this account !
Tracey : on a previous thread I asked for the same questions, and the answer was that this will not be possible before mid to end 2009 ! Do you think we can get this before or not ?
(http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=36993)
Thanks
Didier

[RuralWeb]

if it's order history data you want then look at codepath who have a plugin which will do this.

[stonda]

Thanks Malcom. Yes I want the order history data, but I also want a full customer account !

[RuralWeb]

but I also want a full customer account

Codepath do that as well so you should be able to do both - give andy a call and see what he says.