PWA

[Guest]

I'd like opinion on people being able to purchase without an account.

Do you think requiring an account turns people away?

I'm considering installing PWA, what's everyone's take on it?

Wally

[Guest]

I'd like opinion on people being able to purchase without an account.

Do you think requiring an account turns people away?

I'm considering installing PWA, what's everyone's take on it?

Wally

Go for it.

[comicsigotem]

You shouldn't give customers any reason not to buy from your store. I want people to register an account at my store, but if they don't want to for whatever reason, I give them that option.

[Guest]

Well I blew it. I installed it and got an error right away on the front page.

The SQL import went fine, but copying the files over pooped out on me.

Wally

[comicsigotem]

Did you use a Compare program to compare the old and the new files? Hopefully you backed up your stuff, haha.

[Guest]

Yes I backed up, But what do you mean by compare? Was there a step I missed?

Wally

[MindTwist]

Install it (if you can).

 

I might have only had 2 sales a month of PWA customers. But without it, they might have been lost sales. You will only install it once, it will probably be used many times, no reason for not installing it.

[comicsigotem]

Yes I backed up, But what do you mean by compare? Was there a step I missed?

Wally

 

I mean a program that compares the files in the installation package to your files so you can see where the changes are. You only need to do it if you've added a lot of modifications like I did before I installed PWA.

[♥Vger]

I can think of several very good reasons for not installing PWA.

 

1. An online business survives by being able to email those who subscribe to your Newsletter with news of Specials and Special deals, Discount, Special Promotions etc. With PWA those people are lost to you.

 

2. It doesn't shorten the Create Account process - it duplicates it completely and then just deletes the account at the end of it.

 

3. After it's deleted the account if anything goes wrong with the order notification you have no record of it.

 

Vger

[comicsigotem]

I can think of several very good reasons for not installing PWA.

 

1. An online business survives by being able to email those who subscribe to your Newsletter with news of Specials and Special deals, Discount, Special Promotions etc. With PWA those people are lost to you.

 

2. It doesn't shorten the Create Account process - it duplicates it completely and then just deletes the account at the end of it.

 

3. After it's deleted the account if anything goes wrong with the order notification you have no record of it.

 

Vger

 

That's ridiculous. First off, if people won't buy from your store because you're making them create an account, then, reason 1 doesn't matter because you not getting any information from them. You don't want to force your customer to do anything they don't want to do, especially if there are other stores offering the same product as you. In my store, in the part where it asks if they would like to checkout with creating an account, I tell them the benefits that they will be missing out on if they don't register, but if they still want to checkout with creating an account, that's fine with me. You shouldn't ever want to turn away business.

 

For your second reason, that's not the point. People might feel uncomfortable with you having their information on file but they still need to give you their information so they get their product so they're okay with that.

 

Your third reason is valid and I tell customers that when they are proceeding to checkout without an account, but you still have track of the order in your admin and who it's going to so it's not like you won't have any idea about the order.

[Guest]

But what is the difference?

If they create an account, they're giving you their name, address, shipping info, etc.

If they don't create an account, aren't they STILL giving you the same info? You need to ship the darn thing to them.

So, aren't you collecting the very same info either way? The only difference being, you don't store it for later use. And personally, I think being able to go back and look at your order status through your account (especially if I intend to order again) is valuable.

_

Either way, I tried to install it and it pooped out on me so It's a no-go for me anyways.

Wally

[comicsigotem]

But what is the difference?

If they create an account, they're giving you their name, address, shipping info, etc.

If they don't create an account, aren't they STILL giving you the same info? You need to ship the darn thing to them.

So, aren't you collecting the very same info either way? The only difference being, you don't store it for later use. And personally, I think being able to go back and look at your order status through your account (especially if I intend to order again) is valuable.

_

Either way, I tried to install it and it pooped out on me so It's a no-go for me anyways.

Wally

 

Well, that's what common sense would tell you, but that's not what happens. Just like $1.99 is not significantly lower than $2.00 but it seems like that in the consumer's minds.

[♥Vger]

In the default osCommerce there are five entries on the Create Account page which can simply be turned off in the admin panel. The "Fax" entry is not required and is not error checked so can just be remmed out. You can make the process appear more friendly with something like "Login page a la Amazon" - which is much easier to install than PWA.

 

You won't find any large company in the UK (where I am based) where you do not have to create an account in order to shop - and they certainly don't suffer from it e.g. Amazon, eBay, Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Comet, Curries, Argos etc etc etc.

 

There is only one type of website where I can see that asking customers to create a permanent account may put them off buying - and they're "adult" sites, where people don't want to leave a record of ordering from them. I think using PWA is perfectly valid for those sort of sites.

 

Vger

[Guest]

Vger, that's a very good point. Why should I be any different than the big boys. It's not their size that lets them get away with it.

It's just the fact that there is no difference in creating an account or temporarily typing it in. Especially if I don't process credit cards directly. Paypal does it for me.

Wally

[beanzy]

Is PWA working on rc2a?