ProductCart E-Commerce Solutions Homepage
Forum Home Forum Home > ProductCart > Customizing ProductCart
  New Posts New Posts RSS Feed - Disabling "require login" for returning custs
  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Events   Register Register  Login Login

Disabling "require login" for returning custs

 Post Reply Post Reply Page  123 4>
Author
Message
Matty-CT View Drop Down
Newbie
Newbie


Joined: 13-November-2008
Location: Connecticut
Status: Offline
Points: 0
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Matty-CT Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Disabling "require login" for returning custs
    Posted: 13-November-2008 at 12:09pm
Hi all,
 
First post here as I've bugged Early Impact by email for all questions previously.  I figured that it's time to register in the forum.  One of my clients wants to modify their ProductCart install so that returning (previously registered) customers can submit an order without having to enter their password.  Personally, I don't see the big deal but the customer is always right, eh?
 
I've searched the forum and wiki and saw references to this but no conclusion or changes to code to accomplish it.  If it is as easy as someone once stated, might someone post the ASP changes to do it?
 
Thanks,
 
Matt
Back to Top
lesliecv View Drop Down
Newbie
Newbie


Joined: 01-October-2007
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 0
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote lesliecv Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06-January-2009 at 3:00pm
Please tell me if this can be changed. I think it's a big deal because first time customers on my site can choose to "No, I want to checkout without creating a password." However, when they return, they get this message:

"Based on your e-mail address, we see that you have purchased from us before. Thank you for your previous business and welcome you back to our store!

Because it is necessary for us to associate all orders with a specific e-mail address, a customer account was created for you last time you ordered. A random password was also created for you, so that you could login and use the same information again without having to re-enter it.

Click here and this temporary password will be immediately sent to you."

This is enough for repeat customers to jump ship. Especially since they chose to purchase without creating a password - and alas, one was created without their knowledge.

Is there any way to change this so that repeat customers who chose not to create a password can just purchase without being faced with logging in? And for customers who have forgotten their password, they can purchase without logging in?

Let's make it easy to purchase stuff,
Leslie
Back to Top
Hamish View Drop Down
Admin Group
Admin Group


Joined: 12-October-2006
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 56
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hamish Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06-January-2009 at 4:00pm
Hi Matt, sorry you didn't get a reply before & Hi Leslie,
   The problem is that all orders must be associated with an email so that the customer can receive emails about the fact that their order has been processed, shipped, there is a problem etc etc. This email address is their userid on the store and that combined with a password, auto-generated or , more normally, manually set by them allows access to information specific to that customer. e.g. Name & Address, previous orders etc. 

If they are returning customers they obviously trusted you enough to place an order in the first place so I would have thought they would be OK with a password at that point.
Without it they would also have to re-enter all their personal details each time they order.

The only way round this I can see right now is to, once they have completed their order, amend the email address associated with their account, so in effect freeing it up for re-use. You would not want to delete the customer record as that would also delete all the customers orders from the system.
There is no automated method for achieving this.

Without a proper login customers haqve no access to see their previous orders and perform RMA's etc.
Back to Top
DavidH View Drop Down
Newbie
Newbie
Avatar

Joined: 10-February-2008
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 0
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DavidH Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04-March-2009 at 7:02pm
What amazes me most is I have read posts and requests as far back as 2006 on this very subject and according to Hamish, there is no Early Impact approved method or fix to accomplishing what many online sites have been offering for years now. If customers have come up with a way to do this, why hasn't Early Impact programmed it into the cart and offer it as an option?  It doesn't seem that difficult to me as you just tell the customer, without creating or reusing an established account, you will not receive confirmations, etc,. etc. etc. Leave it up to them.  Has anyone come up with an easy way to institute the Hack to do this.  My customer is asking for it which is another amazing thing to me. All of us smarty pants are sitting here explaining to each other why we should or should not require an account as if trying to convince each other while our customers look at us as if we have two heads why such an obvious feature is missing from a product we just talked them into spending hundreds of dollars on. Can anyone ease my pain?
Back to Top
Hamish View Drop Down
Admin Group
Admin Group


Joined: 12-October-2006
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 56
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hamish Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04-March-2009 at 9:29pm
Hi DavidH,
   Firstly, I'd like to make it clear my posts on the forum are my personal opinions and not any formal position or opinion of Early Impact.

What exactly does your customer want?
I don't think this is an obvious feature - indeed from a personal/business point of view I think it's a slightly crazy idea, but then of course I'm not your customer and I don't know the rational behind their thinking.
 
Collecting customer email addresses is valuable for marketing purposes as well as communicating with customers about their orders. I don't know of any ecommerce stores that don't require an email address and I'm not aware of any that don't require a password , although I guess there are probably some. I suspect they make up a very very small percentage of ecommerce stores.
 
Myself, I would avoid a website that was asking for all my personal details but apparently offering no way of protecting them. If all that is required to access the account is an email address this would be totally unacceptable to me and probably breach rules on protecting privacy in most countries.
 
 A ProductCart store does not technically require the correct email address, just a valid one.
A customer can register with Mmouse@disneyworld.com and their order will still be accepted by the software. The customer is then, of course, "isolated" from email communication.

It follows from this that it would be possible to :-

A) Advise them about the various services which provide temporary email addresses. (Google for temporary email addresses)
B) Advise the customer to make up a random email address, as long as it's NOT a valid one that may belong to someone else.
C) Automatically "zap" the email address provided by setting it to something random, or, for example, adding in the order number after the "@" with some custom code.

I have never had a client who has requested this facility and would like to understand what the reasoning behind  the request is.

Has anyone written code to achieve option C ? What has been the outcome?
 

Back to Top
DavidH View Drop Down
Newbie
Newbie
Avatar

Joined: 10-February-2008
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 0
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DavidH Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04-March-2009 at 9:50pm
Hamish, I wasn't trying to pin your post on being Early Impacts official position. Sorry if that was how it came through. I was meerly indicating that I read posts as far back as 2006 about the returning customer Password issue and your post was created in 2009. In three years, I still see posts by people on this site convincing and arguing why the current quick checkout process in the cart product is "Correct" or appropriate when there are many of us expressing the need for true Quick checkout where it does not require the customer to go through the tedious process of waiting for the temp password to arrive by email so they can proceed to buy your product. My customer upon launching their cart (site) ran into the returning customer/email temp password process within the first 4 customers.  I saw another post where someone came up with a Hack so it did not do this. It let them truelly Quick Checkout without requiring the user to wait for the email to arrive (if they can even get their email where they are at all) so they can finish the checkout process. This is what I meant by seems easy.  Customers have already developed a way to get around this process which many other higher end sites do not require you to do.
 
You mentioned "I don't know of any ecommerce stores that don't require an email address and I'm not aware of any that don't require a password " The email address I would absolutely agree with you but the password part I beleive you are incorrect.  There are many sites that gives me the option to quick checkout without establishing an account with password and when I go back to them, it does not ask me to wait to get a temp password. That is the part I think is insane and should have been changed long ago.  This is the same opinion of my customer and the others I have seen in this forum. Heck, one guy gave really convincing proff that it increased sales by 40% when they put the hack in to not require the temp password and to let the user quick checkout correctly each time back to the site.
Back to Top
Hamish View Drop Down
Admin Group
Admin Group


Joined: 12-October-2006
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 56
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hamish Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04-March-2009 at 10:41pm
Hi DavidH,
     The first time a customer visits they are slowed down by having to provide name and address details. On subsequent visits the checkout is faster if they use a regular account.

The biggest issue with not requiring a password at all, not even an auto-generated one, would be that the customer would have to be treated as a new customer each time. Because the email address IS the account this gives access to personal data such as name, address, contact details, purchase history etc etc.  To quote a post from EarlyImpact :
"All in all, there are so many advanced features in ProductCart that are tied to the creation and existence of a customer account that right now it simply does not make sense for us to perform the code changes."

They also pointed out that Google Checkout provides similar functionality.

If you do wish to modify the code then I recommend contacting ssharp to see if they are willing to share the code.
If I was to carry out such a project I think I'd look to place the code just after the order confirmation email has been set and IF (and only IF) the customer has selected the "Checkout without entering a password" feature I would zap the email address at that point, probably using the order number as in my previous post.

Before doing this though I would feel honour bound to go through all the consequences, in terms of loss of useable functionality etc,  of such a change with my client.
If it was really such a great idea then Amazon and the other big players in the market would allow it - but they don't. Still, if your client insists even after you explain all the consequences then I guess you may have to go ahead.

Back to Top
DavidH View Drop Down
Newbie
Newbie
Avatar

Joined: 10-February-2008
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 0
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DavidH Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04-March-2009 at 11:15pm
Hamish, that is the goal. The customer does not want to create an account and doesn't mind being treated as a new customer each time because that leads them to believe they are not being tracked or that you don't keep their account info on record (which of course we know they do but the customer wants to feel you are not).  The point is that Quick Checkouts have gained in popularity dramatically over the last several years because shoppers are more hesitant to give up their email address (because of the spam onslaught) rather then their credit card.  I appreciate you looking at this from the cart or developer angle by talking about the features that would be lost etc. but the customer comfort and desire for certain features takes precident. 
 
Amazon is a very good site and it is one way that checkout is performed. But I encourage you to go to sites like Bestbuy, Staples, JCPenney, Homedepot, etc. etc. They have Checkouts that say "You don't need to register for an account to check out - just click "Continue". You can still register once your order is complete, to enjoy faster checkouts and other benefits"  This is not a new trend and sales increase dramatically whenever this style of checkout is instituted. It has been on the rise and I love Product Cart enough to wish they would stay up with obvious trends instead of fighting it because of the re-coding time. I want to keep using this product and if the clients we have want this feature in their cart (which they obviously do as I found out in the first 4 orders) I will need to look at other options which I don't want to do. There has to be a way to flawlessly work in a quick checkout function for those customers that desire it. It basically takes you back to the days when you filled out a form and sent it to Authorizenet for processing and recorded the transaction in the DB. We were doing that 10 years ago. It should not be that tough to do.
Back to Top
DavidH View Drop Down
Newbie
Newbie
Avatar

Joined: 10-February-2008
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 0
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DavidH Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04-March-2009 at 11:47pm

Sorry, followup to my last sentence. It should be as easy as the customer selects Quick Checkout and even a checkbox or something that says they understand they will be treated as a new customer each time, the site should collect their billing, shipping and other necesary info and bypass the returning customer routine. If the email already exists, no problem. The customer already knows from the previous step that their info will need to be reenterd the next time in. Send the order info to Authnet and store the Order info in the tables. Simple  :-)  (I see steam coming out of your ears from here)

Back to Top
Matt View Drop Down
Moderator Group
Moderator Group


Joined: 20-July-2006
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 73
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Matt Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04-March-2009 at 11:53pm
Hi David,

The reason why ProductCart v3 does not have "Guest Checkout" is not philosophical.  To reference the quote Hamish posted from Early Impact “there are so many advanced features… tied to the creation and existence of a customer account”.  From an architectural design standpoint this will not change in v3.  

- Keep an eye on ProductCart v4.  Changes to the checkout process are on the road map (though I do not yet have specifics). 

-  This could result in the type of article that would be a good fit for the wiki.  The wiki is community based, meaning everyone can share and quality check each other’s contributions.  So I would encourage people to share their workarounds for this issue on the wiki. 
Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply Page  123 4>
  Share Topic   

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down

Forum Software by Web Wiz Forums® version 12.04
Copyright ©2001-2021 Web Wiz Ltd.

This page was generated in 0.047 seconds.