Registered Users Checking Out As Guests

Hi,

Are there any mods / addon that can allow previously registered users to checkout as a guest with registered information if they don't wish to login? They can just checkout as a guest and the shop doesn't prompt them to login.

Logging in should be a choice of the customer - not forced by the cart because they opted to login in the past.

Most customers just want to checkout as guest - it takes far less time to type out an address than remember a password they haven't used for years.

But anyone that has registered in the past is prompted with an error message that their email address already exists and must login to continue. Most of these people can't remember their login info / have moved addresses / have forgotten they registered in the past and must reset their passwords to continue. It means waiting for emails from the server and resetting their accounts before completing their order.

It's adding a bunch of hoops and hurdles for what could have been a quick sale.

Registration is great for shops that serve repeat customers regularly but if it's a few years between orders or sales are largely impulse buys from casual shoppers it becomes a hurdle.

I can either delete all registered users - not knowing who wants to keep their account and who doesn't - or registered users get an error notice when trying to checkout as a guest. Why can't they just checkout as a guest if they wish?

Thanks

Hi,

Are there any mods / addon that can allow previously registered users to checkout as a guest with registered information if they don't wish to login? They can just checkout as a guest and the shop doesn't prompt them to login.

Logging in should be a choice of the customer - not forced by the cart because they opted to login in the past.

Most customers just want to checkout as guest - it takes far less time to type out an address than remember a password they haven't used for years.

But anyone that has registered in the past is prompted with an error message that their email address already exists and must login to continue. Most of these people can't remember their login info / have moved addresses / have forgotten they registered in the past and must reset their passwords to continue. It means waiting for emails from the server and resetting their accounts before completing their order.

It's adding a bunch of hoops and hurdles for what could have been a quick sale.

Registration is great for shops that serve repeat customers regularly but if it's a few years between orders or sales are largely impulse buys from casual shoppers it becomes a hurdle.

I can either delete all registered users - not knowing who wants to keep their account and who doesn't - or registered users get an error notice when trying to checkout as a guest. Why can't they just checkout as a guest if they wish?

Thanks

This would go against all the logical reasons for having a registration system in the first place, If they did not want an account then they would never have registered.

The aim of most stores is to encourage people to register so they can email them on offers etc and get them back to make another purchase before they forget the first purchase.

I would suggest that your are looking for a solution to the wrong problem and you need to look at your marketing.

Hello, there is a one page checkout mod that can do this:

http://forum.cs-cart.com/topic/42596-allow-registered-users-to-use-guest-checkout/#entry234760

If you use Group Memberships with special promotions, the person assigned to the group needs to be registered and log in to get the special promotion. I use this and would not want a registered user assigned to a group(s) to log out as a guest,

I also use the group membership for targeted email promotions. As far as I know, you can't assign a group membership to an unregistered customer.

Bob

This would go against all the logical reasons for having a registration system in the first place, If they did not want an account then they would never have registered.

The aim of most stores is to encourage people to register so they can email them on offers etc and get them back to make another purchase before they forget the first purchase.

I would suggest that your are looking for a solution to the wrong problem and you need to look at your marketing.

Really depends on your store and your customers habits. What works for one store doesn't mean jack for another store.

Not every store sells the same way to the same type of customers so marketing techniques aren't improved by capturing details they don't want to give. We would rather the sale and let them on their way if they don't wish to give us anymore information than hold them hostage to a login they will half-heartedly fill out just to get on with the order.

I personally hate registering when i shop somewhere - always take the guest checkout if it's an option. I suspect many more shoppers behave that way as well rather than joining EVERY shop they use online.

We collect emails with a newsletter opt-in so registration of their address isn't really necessary since we can contact them again and follow up with offers. 100% of our business is referral from bands and artists who hit their fanbase with newsletters and point them to their sales directly from socials and emails - we don't need to be doing that since it's already taken care of before they get to our shop so our newsletters are few and far between anyway. It works better to get the band to tell their fans via their socials than for our shop to email customers.

I offer registration if they want it but the problem is if they have registered in the past and don't want to sign-in in the future they get an error message rather than letting them just do what they want as a free paying customer. IF they are ordering from a mobile device on the street after a concert and 5 beers you really think they'll wait around for the server to email them a forgotten password reset and go through all that nonsense?

Far more logical to just let them order with no hassles. The quick sale is far more important to my business but each to their own.

Hello, there is a one page checkout mod that can do this:

http://forum.cs-cart.com/topic/42596-allow-registered-users-to-use-guest-checkout/#entry234760

If you use Group Memberships with special promotions, the person assigned to the group needs to be registered and log in to get the special promotion. I use this and would not want a registered user assigned to a group(s) to log out as a guest,

I also use the group membership for targeted email promotions. As far as I know, you can't assign a group membership to an unregistered customer.

Bob

Your example is a good reason for not wanting it i guess - thou you could still make it work and let the customer decide if they want to login or not to get the offers. By logging in they get a better deal, if they forget they miss out but you still get the order regardless.

Cs-Cart has these kinds of marketing techniques built in which are great on one hand but they seem to lack options to not use them if your store doesn't need it.

Simply letting us decide in Admin if we want a customer who has previously registered to use guest checkout should be a simple checkbox option to use or not use. It's odd that we're forcing customers habits rather than working with them.

Do you see any new records about errors or warnings in server error logs?

I fill in the step two(Billing address) and nothing happens.

Not to beat a dead horse, but when "nothing happens" do you not see the spinning wheel indicating that an ajax request is pending?

Have you checked your PHP error_log file for any errors that might be related to the shpping step in checkout?

I can almost guarantee that this isn't an issue with the standard 4.6.2 distribution of cs-cart so you might want to disable all 3rd party addons and see if the problem repeats. If not, enable one by one until you find the culprit. Then contact the developer.