Why You Should Always Allow Guest Checkout On Your eCommerce Store

Before ringing your items, cashiers at brick and mortar stores often ask one of these questions: “What’s your email address?” or “What’s your zip code?” or “Do you want to sign up for our membership card?” It can be a bit frustrating when you just finished shopping and all you want to do is quickly […]

By Jill Govier

guest-checkout

Before ringing your items, cashiers at brick and mortar stores often ask one of these questions: “What’s your email address?” or “What’s your zip code?” or “Do you want to sign up for our membership card?” It can be a bit frustrating when you just finished shopping and all you want to do is quickly buy your items and go on your way. While this may be standard company policy on their part, it can slow down the whole checkout process and flow.

In a way, this situation is similar to how some eCommerce stores work. You’re browsing through a website, finally choose the item you want to buy, and then you are quickly prompted to sign up before you can even checkout. Now, this can cause a lot of potential customers to leave and buy the item they need elsewhere.

What makes a customer not want to sign up?

Creating an account is too long of a process and it isn’t ideal for the customer who’s in a rush. It’s an extra step they need to make before they can successfully buy your products. It asks a lot of the customer too early in the checkout process. A good rule of thumb is to completely remove the ‘sign up’ barrier by making guest checkout default, and to ask the customer to sign up at the very end of the transaction. The customer’s contact and billing information is already added; they just need to add a password, and they’re set if they choose to create an account. This option is less abrasive and makes the checkout process more streamlined.

Customers also associate signing up for an account with newsletters and spam. They believe they’ll get bombarded with unwanted emails. Make it clear to your customers that your newsletter and store promotions are optional, and provide checkboxes and text that say so.

Also, most customers aren’t comfortable creating accounts for every store they buy from. There’s a possibility they already have multiple accounts created within different stores if they do a lot of online shopping. Customers may not want to shed out all of their information at once as well due to security precautions. Instead of forcing an account on a customer, there should be a more subtle approach. For example, the option to checkout as a guest should be more prominent than the option to create an account, or to be eliminated altogether. Below are a few examples of popular stores offering guest checkout:

cratebarrel
Crate & Barrel

nordstrom
Nordstrom

zgallerie
Z-Gallerie

Why should a customer sign up anyway?

If customers feel comfortable signing up for your eCommerce store that means they are loyal to your brand and trust you has a consumer. Now that you have their email address, you can send promotional email blasts along with coupons and special offers that customers can utilize. Your store can also cater to your customers’ interests by personalizing recommended products and promotions to their liking by. These can easily be determined by your customer’s previous purchases. Personalizations boost sales while providing a positive shopping experience for your customers. Your customers would also be able to leave reviews on their favorite products, keep track of their orders, and create wish lists for themselves.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that by not offering guest checkout, your store’s conversion rates can drop and cart abandonment rate will go up. This is a major dropping point for customers. Around 30% of customers leave because they are forced to create an account.

If you want more sales and loyal customers offer guest checkout, and eliminate the ‘sign up’ barrier. If you do want customers to sign up, have it available at the very end of their transaction. Their personal information has already been added during the checkout process. Also, offer special promotions and a personalized shopping experience for each customer that chooses to sign up for.

Graphic Designer