Anonymous users and checkout

[WylieE]

We're investigating anonymous users and exactly how they function in AC. I'm seeing two different situations and am a little confused. We've enabled anonymous checkout per the Help docs, BTW.

Scenario #1:
A new customer comes to our site, adds to cart and checks out. They enter the billing information including phone# and email. At the Create Account option they opt out of creating an account. Order is placed and processed.

- From the customer's perspective, they did not create an account. However, we can look under users and find a random username (zz_anonymous_359@domain.xyz ) for this customer and their customer information. AC created a somewhat hidden account it seems. If the customer comes back and tries to repeat the same process again, they get a message saying the email address is in use and please log in which is confusing.

Scenario #2:
A sales rep creates a new order via New Orders under orders. The new customer does not have an account and the sales rep does not create one. The order is placed and processed.

- The user did not create an account, nor did the sales rep. If we look under Users, we do not see any sort of account for this customer. We can still look at their customer information within the order though. The sales rep can place subsequent orders for the same customer in this manner. Creating an order in this manner did not create a pseudo-account.

Questions:

- In scenario #2, where does the customer information reside? Can or should a pseudo account (like scenario #1) be created?

- Is there any way to tie anonymous orders together? (ie. the same customer places multiple orders anonymously or via a sales rep. Is there any way to generate an order history?)

- More of a general question: How many of you allow anonymous checkout and how many require an account to be created? We are looking at migrating our customer orders out of our current system. My preference would be to create a customer account so all previous/current orders could be tied to the new account. That would allow the customer to see their order history. Unfortunately, the customer would not know the password to their new account. This would require the customer to reset their password before they could check out under their account. Our company management is adamently opposed to requiring the customers to reset their passwords. I don't see this as a big issue if we properly communicate the new website and why an account was set up and why they need to reset their passwords. What do you folks think? Alternatives???

Thanks everyone.

[Mike718NY]

Scenario #1:
At the Create Account option they opt out of creating an account.
If the customer comes back and tries to repeat the same process again, they get a message saying the email address is in use and please log in which is confusing.

They won't get that message. I checked that. They should be able to just place a new order.

How many of you allow anonymous checkout and how many require an account to be created? My preference would be to create a customer account so all previous/current orders could be tied to the new account.

You risk losing business, maybe. Some people are still afraid to create accounts
(even though their data is going to stored in the database anyway).

For the last web site I built, . . .

out of 38,416 customers:

23,384 created an account (chose the option)

15,032 didn't

You don't really know if you are going to lose customers or not if you make
them create an account.

[WylieE]

How many of you allow anonymous checkout and how many require an account to be created? My preference would be to create a customer account so all previous/current orders could be tied to the new account.

You risk losing business, maybe. Some people are still afraid to create accounts
(even though their data is going to stored in the database anyway).

For the last web site I built, . . .

out of 38,416 customers:

23,384 created an account (chose the option)

15,032 didn't

You don't really know if you are going to lose customers or not if you make
them create an account.

Thanks for the numbers. 60/40-ish split. Any idea how many anonymous accounts were ultimately repeat customers?

Does anyone else have experience with anonymous vs. customer accounts?

[Mike718NY]

>> Any idea how many anonymous accounts were ultimately repeat customers?

Good point. I'll have to run a new query for that one.

[WylieE]

Scenario #2:
A sales rep creates a new order via New Orders under orders. The new customer does not have an account and the sales rep does not create one. The order is placed and processed.

- The user did not create an account, nor did the sales rep. If we look under Users, we do not see any sort of account for this customer. We can still look at their customer information within the order though. The sales rep can place subsequent orders for the same customer in this manner. Creating an order in this manner did not create a pseudo-account.

Questions:

- In scenario #2, where does the customer information reside? Can or should a pseudo account (like scenario #1) be created?

Thanks everyone.

Just a follow-up here and directed a bit more towards the AC staff. Can any light be shed on how the anonymous order (customer) information is stored? This would be the most efficient process for our sales reps to enter current open orders as we migrate to AC, but I want to make sure we don't end up with orphan order data.

Thanks,
Eric.

[AbleMods]

23,384 created an account (chose the option)

15,032 didn't

You don't really know if you are going to lose customers or not if you make
them create an account.

Seriously? That big of a difference??

Wow

[jmestep]

I don't think you can please all the customers- a lot of those who didn't "create an account" used to call and say "Is there a way you can hook all my orders together?" We put a blurb in our login page on Able 5 to explain why it was good to create an account for that reason.

[WylieE]

I don't think you can please all the customers- a lot of those who didn't "create an account" used to call and say "Is there a way you can hook all my orders together?" We put a blurb in our login page on Able 5 to explain why it was good to create an account for that reason.

I completely agree with you and that is a large part of my concern. Do you still have the verbiage you used on your Able 5 site?

Thanks!

[jmestep]

Here it is.

acct.gif