As our online activities doubles, so as the number of online orders. It looks as if almost every website out there asks you to “sign up” or “sign-in” — and the process is hardly ever easier. Nor are these accounts held to the same standards from one site to the next, leading to insecure passwords.
No one wants to make yet another account unless there’s a much benefit to doing so. Consumers will even go to good lengths to avoid signing in to finish a purchase, up to and including totally abandoning their cart in favor of a different store.
In short: customers everywhere are going through new account fatigue, and it could be dangerous for your store.
The obvious solution to this problem is the guest checkout option, which doesn’t require shoppers to create an account or save any personal data to finish a purchase. However, adding guest checkout isn’t a great move for every online store website, and it could sometime cause more problems than it solves in some cases.
Let’s find out how you can decide if guest checkout is a perfect fit for your store, based on a couple of important criteria like the possibility of reorders, order frequency, and the overall benefit of customer accounts.
Guest checkout vs. Account checkout: the basics
Guest checkout allows your shoppers to purchase from your store without logging in to an account or saving any data in your database. The customer’s data is applied to one order only and is not stored for reuse.
On the other hand, the checkout process with an account enables shoppers to store data for reuse. This can be fruitful if customers later return to your store — they can just utilize their stored data to order rather than typing it in by hand again.
Why setting up guest checkout isn’t necessarily a great move
So if account fatigue exists, allowing guest checkout just takes a couple of minutes, and the no-account-required option may increase conversion rates, you might be thinking why anyone wouldn’t have this choice.
The truth is that it’s practical for some stores to ask their customers to create accounts. In some cases, the availability of guest checkout can cause more issues than it solves. You may face:
- Problems reviewing, tracking or modifying orders
- The inability to simply reorder products
- A manual vs. automatic processes required for exchanges, returns, or refunds/credits
The most ideal way to choose whether or not you should have a guest option is by thinking about a couple of specific factors. The following are some important points to remember as you choose whether or not asking for an account is a great move.
Think about whether or not reorders are likely
Going hand-in-hand with the increasing number of orders is the frequency of reorders. Both are significant to consider, however, you ought to consider them individually — they’re not the same thing. Here’s the reason.
Let’s consider a store that sells handmade products. Their customers are trustworthy, and not just to their brand, but additionally to particular products. So when they return every two to three months to order more items, they’re most likely to pick a similar product and size.
This store may offer guest checkout — there’s really no reason they couldn’t. However, with an account, customers can easily reorder the products they need without going through the hassle of browsing the store and purchasing them again. They can additionally store their shipping information and payment on file, making reordering an amazingly quick process.
In case you’re selling frequently replaced goods, and your customers will probably utilize the “Buy Again” button to order the same products many times every year, you owe it to them to at least take the benefit of signing up for an account clear. Forcing signup may not be required, but explaining the advantages can certainly help win them over.
Returns, exchanges, and refunds are a hassle without an account
Have you ever return a product to an ecommerce store that was a bit behind the times? It likely went something like this:
- Discover and read the return policy page
- Email or Call customer service
- Ship the undesired item back at your own expense
Not only is this a terrific process, it additionally wastes time for returning a product and leaves your money in lingo for far longer than it has to be.
Orders placed via guest checkout with most online stores don’t face problems like these — that is, as long as you’re doing customer-friendly things like giving a shipping label in the box or automating the return process in some other way. However, if you sell products that are more probably to be returned, guest checkout could complicate this process.
Guest checkout is a good choice for some stores, however not for others
Consider all the above-mentioned factors when choosing if you need to allow guest checkout on your store. The possibility of reorders and the overall desire for accounts can have a solid impact on whether or not that “sign up” link leads to needing annoyance… or a fruitful addition to your site.
Have any questions about putting guest checkout on your online store?
You’re always welcome to add your thoughts, simply drop us a line on support@builderfly.com
