Disabling "require login" for returning custs

I think, if you loose that many customers, then there may be something else going on.  A big bailer can be related to high shipping cost (not that I've looked at your site).   I don't see such a high drop rate at our site.  Occasionally we have an incomplete, and we always email them with the option of paying over the phone.  Ironically almost all of them do call.  We also offer "call in credit card" at check out and that is being used quite frequently.  Some feel more save when they can talk to someone on the phone. 

As for checkout, this is what puzzles me.  Why even ask for an email address when someone chooses to shop with out creating an account.  Just take the address, no email confirmation, no tracking information per email, no reward points, and no login area later.   That's what those customers want?  Right?  I'm not complaining about it, since almost 100% of our customers create an account.  Perhaps having a better layout and explaining the benefits for creating an account and email usage policy on the registering page would help.  Besides it has become industry standard for customers to create accounts. 
That's all for now,
Katharina

Folks - Don't forget a much enhanced  "Guest Checkout" is planned in V4.

Joe,  
   
   I don't get what you mean by "Checkout with a password" - Doing so implies they have an account and at the very least a password is always associated with an account of some sort - so would require a Login to use it..

For E-Commerce any delivery of physical products will need a delivery address collecting and if a Credit Card is used then the address associated to that account is also required by the credit card companies as part of the security processes. 

The key difference as I see it is that some customers don't want their details stored/used beyond it's use in the transaction, or am I mis-understanding the issue?

I expect those same customers will still want the ability to RMA faulty products and possibly other facilities as well. Deleting their details after the transaction is complete could be done, but whatever happens there is always an electronic paper trail, payment records from the credit card company, delivery records all of which are outside any E-Commerce software packages control  so quite what the ultimate purpose of the exercise is defeats me.  
Anyway, automatically zapping the email address would disable the account and render it inaccessible from the storefront.  If you feel the need, it would be possible to also automate invalidating addresses with some custom code after an order has been dispatched (at the point it changes to "complete").

ANOTHER OPTION springs to mind - A modified version of the "Login" page - perhaps called something completely different  "Guest Checkout" which would basiically be loging.asp but with hidden email address and password fields, where those details are automatically calculated, say a random(ish) email address pointing to the stores domain - say ZZhhmmss@mystore.com , where hhmmss are the current time to the second (most stores a very low chance of a collision). 
   

OK...I have read 4 pages of posts regarding this problem.  It is a big problem for me.  If I have a problem trying to place a test order and remember what email address and password I used, my customers do too.  I know I am losing sales because of it.  In simple english...I am not a techno geek, has anybody fixed this problem.  Can anybody direct me to may be able to do it?  It would be greatly appreciated.

I've completed a solid beta of this modification.