The #1 Best Practice, least Practiced
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Don’t ask potential buyers for information if it is not required for the sale.

It always stops me dead in my tracks. While shopping online, the merchant asks for information they simply don’t need. Many of the sites doing this seem to be copying checkout flows they have seen in the past on other sites. Things do change however, and if the site they copied it from is still in business, chances are that they have changed their ways.

Even more amazing to me is that there are so many articles written (like this one) advising merchants what they should and should not do in the course of a eCommerce checkout.

For this first blog entry, lets focus on what I believe to be one of the most discussed best practices:

Make registration optional, or Don’t offer it at all.

Despite the many great articles written (including this one from Linda Bustos of GetElastic.com) that clearly disapprove of the practice, so many merchants still insist that their site is different, and that they still need users to register before they can purchase anything.

Consider these points, when reviewing your eCommerce Checkout flow:

  • Don’t require buyers to create a username and password for your site.
  • If you really want buyers to register, kindly suggest that they save all the information they have provided at the end of the transaction, never at the beginning. At that point, all you need them to do is to create a password.
  • Wherever you ask for login credentials, the page must be SSL secured. If you aren’t sure why, then you shouldn’t be asking users to register, as you may be exposing yourselves and your customers to great risk of ID theft, and more.
  • When asking for their email address, just ask them to type it once. I am not sure where the “retype your email address” trend started, but chances are that whomever it was that started this trend has stopped with that foolishness a long time ago.

I know, I know. Many web developers and merchants will argue that by creating yet another username and password, and profile of my personal details, that “my next visit will be so much faster.” The truth, however, is that the best way to encourage that visitors come back is to make them a buyer first, and ensure that their purchase is memorable in how easy and friction-free it is to shop on the site.

So now tell me, what are your pet “best practices” that are least practiced?

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