The Real Problem With Forced Checkout Registration

This is a guest post by Mike Eckler, writer for the small business blog, eCommerceAngles.com. Thanks Mike!

You’ve done your research, checked the prices, read the reviews.  Your shopping cart is loaded and you are ready to pay. You click the proceed to checkout button and start to pull out your credit card. All of a sudden – BOOM! Arghhh!!! The dreaded forced registration.

Yet another abandoned shopping cart, the victim of an atrocious policy of requiring buyers to register before they pay.  Nothing kills conversions like forced registration.

In this article, I’d like to discuss why forced registration is so detrimental to your checkout flow, and I’ll share with you the real problem with forced checkout registration.

Forced Registration and Clogged Toilets – They Both Stink

As a buyer, I’ve invested time and effort coming to your store and adding items to my shopping cart.  When I’m ready to pay, I’ll click the checkout button, and that means that – I’m ready to pay.  Why would you want to upset me by adding another hurdle?  Haven’t I done enough already?

As a merchant, as soon as the buyer clicks your checkout button, you want one thing and one thing only – the buyer’s credit card number.  When you turn your checkout flow into an obstacle course, you’re only giving the buyer a wonderful opportunity to think twice, to become flustered, to reconsider, and to look elsewhere, in short – to abandon.  Shame on you.

Pre-Checkout Registration is Unnecessary

I can understand why merchants want their buyers to register.  Merchants can use the information, along with specialized cookies and databases, to track and analyze buyers’ behaviour.  Merchants can target registered buyers with highly relevant emails and advertising campaigns. Cart recovery emails are also possible for registered users.

While these are all legitimate and useful marketing tactics, it is not necessary to stop the checkout flow before the critical payment stage. Why not ask the buyer to opt-in to your mailing list, or “rewards club” immediately after accepting the credit card? At this stage, the buyer is in a state of euphoria (or at least my wife is). Successfully completing a checkout is a task completed, a job well done, satisfaction. Your buyers are feeling happy. Now is the time to ask them to opt-in and register. Since  you’ve already collected their name, address, and email, opting-in should be a simple, effortless click.

Even if the buyer does not opt-in at this stage, you can always try again in your order confirmation and package shipped emails.

Is Forced Registration Safe?

Your buyers are probably asking themselves this very question as they are forced to supply personal information before they supply their credit card number.  Even if your checkout flow is SSL protected, and all the security seals are proudly displayed, why give the buyer a reason to doubt your integrity?

Here It Is: The Real Problem with Forced Checkout Registration

The real reason that pre-checkout registration sucks is that I get nothing in return! When I pay you, I receive products in return. When I register, I’m giving you my valuable time and personal data so that you can track my online behaviour and target me with emails. In exchange, I get absolutely nothing. Don’t tell me that SPAM and a yearly birthday greeting is something because it’s NOT.  And don’t tell me that you can store my order history if I register. You’re going to do that anyway regardless of my opting-in or not.

To reiterate, my problem with forced registration is that the merchant gains a lot, while the buyer gets nothing – except the eerie suspicion that they are being followed and are about to be spammed.

The Win-Win Solution

Ask me if I would like to register – after I have paid you, and give me something in exchange: a free gift, a 3% discount, or a coupon for my next order. If I know that you appreciate the fact that I’m allowing you to collect and use my private data, I’ll surely consider your offer and most likely click your opt-in button.

Now that you have a happily opted-in buyer, you can begin to recoup your investment by planting cookies, analyzing the data, creating highly targeted email campaigns, and initiating a cart-recovery notification system.  It’s truly a win-win solution.

Mike’s blog offers advice for smaller e-commerce merchants and anyone considering starting their own online business.  Take a look at eCommerceAngles.com.

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