Customer Registration in PS3

What is the purpose of the customer registration feature in PS3?

Is it just to collect contact information for later emailing?

Is it required to make a purchase?

If so, does the information find its way into the billing and/or shipping fields during checkout, so the customer does not have to enter it twice?

I seem to remember reading something about order status in another thread. Can registered customers view their order status or order history after logging in?

Or is it just for the store owner to view the order history?

Is it used to remember a customers preferences, such that purchase recommendations can be made the next time the customer visits the site?

Thanks,
Robert

What is the purpose of the customer registration feature in PS3? The purpose is to allow for easier purchasing of products on your site and keeping track of those purchases. As with most online stores, you will have to register with their site before making purchases.

Is it just to collect contact information for later emailing? That is one reason for this.

Is it required to make a purchase? Yes, a user must register to make a purchase.

If so, does the information find its way into the billing and/or shipping fields during checkout, so the customer does not have to enter it twice? If the user fills out their profile, then the information will be pre-populated in the checkout forms.

I seem to remember reading something about order status in another thread. Can registered customers view their order status or order history after logging in? Yes, a user that has verified their email can check their order history and check the status of your order.

Or is it just for the store owner to view the order history? The store owner will also be able to see the order history of a customer as well.

Is it used to remember a customers preferences, such that purchase recommendations can be made the next time the customer visits the site? There isn't a built in product recommendation setup in PowerStore. You would have to implement this yourself.

Thanks Jimmy.

Regarding the registration requirement prior to purchase, see this link about a study done on this subject back in 2007.

yes-or-no-why-must-i-choose/

They say, "One of the most interesting facts is that nearly half of the top online retailers still require people to register before they checkout." which puts PS3 slightly in the minority if this were 2007. I do not know what the stats are today, but I am surprised, based on my own experience, that it was/is close to 50%.

They go on to say, ".....I understand how valuable executives think it is to have these customer accounts, but — of the hundreds we’ve analyzed — how many retailers do you think actually tested whether requiring people to register pre-checkout is costing them conversions (read: sales)?"

"Retailers spend so much money driving new traffic to the site, only to force visitors away by asking them to register up-front. Most of the information you need to create an account will be asked in the checkout process, anyway. Get the cash (GTC) first, then do like TravelSmith does and offer the option to create an account after the order is complete."

One of the blog comments said, "often times businesses will hire web developers who are not schooled in ecommerce usability."

I would be interested in knowing how WA or other PS3 users feel about this registration requirement.

I assume that it would be possible, as the blog suggested, to take the registration information via the checkout process after the buyer has decided to purchase?

It would be great if WA created a "how-to" to make this conversion. Any thoughts on that WA?

Thanks,
Robert

Making a modification like that would require quite a bit of custom coding and reworking how some of the backend code works. It wouldn't be plausible to write a how to on the subject since it would be quite complicated.

Since PowerStore 3 was built to work this way, it will be hard to change to work in a different way. You would want to post a request in the wishlist forum and it will be looked at by the development team and maybe included in a future release.

Thanks Jimmy. I will add this to the PG wish list for consideration.

Robert

No problem. If you run into any additional issues, feel free to open a new thread.