I would like to discuss with CS-Cart users and developers one idea that might simplify checkout for lots of users.
To my humble opinion based on 5y experience in e-commerce on CS-Cart platform, the very first step of checkout that currently requires customer to select out from 3 options (New customer, Returning customer and Guest customer) confuses them, makes them think and finally frustrates if they fail to make a best selection. Even when customer solves this puzzle, a number of difficulties waits him on his way to pay money.
Let me explain it in details.
Currently customer sees standard username/password field combination that forces him to recall if he/she already has an account in this store. This is bad. Users are frightened by the login forms! Customer never should care about it, he/she should proceed to purchase with no obstacles for spending money.
If customer selects “Checkout as guest” and enters e-mail that is already registered, he gets an error message saying “The username or email you have chosen already exists. Please try another one”. The same occurs if customer is trying to register a new account with already existing e-mail address. But why should we stop customer here? Is it really big deal if particular e-mail is already registered or not?
Form data validation occurs on server side, so it is impossible to provide meaningful feedback until the full form will be submitted. This is very outdated approach; nowadays customer want to be informed about errors on-the-good right while he/she is typing data into the form.
By default, CS-Cart is preconfigured to validate format of phone number. There is no graceful possibility to override this format from admin UI nor possibility to disable this behaviour. As a result, we need to disable “Phone” field and add a new “Input text” field for phone. Ridiculous!
Here is a list of my improvements that would help CS-Cart to become the most customer-oriented e-commerce platform on the market. Please feel free to comment and provide criticism.
(a) CS-Cart default behaviour should be changed.
(a1) Option “User e-mail is used as login” should be enabled.
(a2) Phone field validation should be disabled. Validation can be later switched on using addon or localization setting, applying validation schema depending on the customer country. Still I doubt phone validation is necessary at all.
( The very first step on checkout asks for e-mail address only.
(b1) If e-mail address already registered, platform asks for a password, clearly explaining why it is convenient for user (save time on filling billing and shipping form, save order in a history for future use) and normal checkout process continues. Here platform also allows to “Continue without logging me in” (proceeds to full form like unregistered customer) or “I’ve lost my password” (also follows by default action).
(b2) If e-mail address if free, user is taken to full form with last checkbox option to create an account. If checked, a random password is generated and sent to e-mail. There is no need to ask customer to enter a password - just send it to him once (even if it is not very secure, maybe here is a place for configuration and further discussion).
That is it. Saves time for the most important process in the e-commerce: when money change their owner from customer to merchant.
Your thoughts are very interesting and can really help to improve checkout in CS-Cart. We will definitely take it into account when working on one of the new CS-Cart releases.
And it would be helpful to read more feedback from CS-Cart storeowners on the proposed ideas. Looking forward for more comments.
While I agree with some of the ideas, there is some flaw in the suggested 1 + 2.
I agree a login should not been required, but it is used to link the order to your account, such that you can view your order history, see your order status, re-order orders, view your wishlist, prevent you from the need of entering a whole address every time you visit the site. - So customers should always have the option to log in when checking out. Most people these days that use the same sites regularly EXPECT to log in, and in fact find the process much faster to complete if they log in to retrieve their details rather than enter them all.
As for using the same email to check out as guest (when you are already registered) - I think it should be possible, but when doing so, remind the user they have an account with that email if they wish to log in (maybe they forgot they had an account, but maybe they just want to place an order and be done with it)
Either way, the checkout in CS-Cart is beyond awful and my most hated part of the system. Things like:
Why show 'Shipping Options' step if there is only 1 shipping option
Bugs with orders being marked as Incomplete after payment is made because the user went back to the checkout pages without 'returning to merchant' from Paypal, even if Paypal already completed the payment.
CS-Cart argue their 1 page checkout is proven to be better than multiple pages. having hidden 'Steps' for a start are proven to discourage people to continue. It LOOKS longer to go through them than proceeding through a 2 page checkout. Multipage with a Progress bar is proven more friendly. Or 1 page without 'steps' in it.
The way it jumps to the last step is frustrating too - most people leave the checkout to make a change, why force them back to the final step??
I've worked in eCommerce for 3 years, and sites like John Lewis, Jigsaw and GLTC have nailed checkouts, in my eyes.
Either way, the checkout in CS-Cart is beyond awful and my most hated part of the system. Things like:
Why show 'Shipping Options' step if there is only 1 shipping option
Bugs with orders being marked as Incomplete after payment is made because the user went back to the checkout pages without 'returning to merchant' from Paypal, even if Paypal already completed the payment.
CS-Cart argue their 1 page checkout is proven to be better than multiple pages. having hidden 'Steps' for a start are proven to discourage people to continue. It LOOKS longer to go through them than proceeding through a 2 page checkout. Multipage with a Progress bar is proven more friendly. Or 1 page without 'steps' in it.
The way it jumps to the last step is frustrating too - most people leave the checkout to make a change, why force them back to the final step??
I've worked in eCommerce for 3 years, and sites like John Lewis, Jigsaw and GLTC have nailed checkouts, in my eyes.
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Agree (and I fixed this with an add-on for 2.25 if anybody is interested)
If this happens your setup is not good.
Agree - in fact I tested on one of our shops where we have quite some old customers, and multipage checkout like it was in cs-cart 2, where people could clearly see what happened where, and also had the possibilty to go back easily, had a 14% (!!!) higher conversion rate.
Yes. Fully agree again! People do not like computers thinking for them. This should be changed in version 4.
I need to check if this work in my custom checkout. Can u help?
You may want to checkout CS Cart Rocks - One Page Checkout as well, a specially the new layout. So much better than the default checkout page of CS Cart.
You may want to checkout CS Cart Rocks - One Page Checkout as well, a specially the new layout. So much better than the default checkout page of CS Cart.
Dear, what i have is even much better than their addon :) do u want to see that?
The very first step on checkout asks for e-mail address only.