Do many customers use guest checkout?

I have a quick question for folks that currently use Opencart on live trading sites.

Do many customers use the guest checkout, or do they prefer to register an account?

Reason I ask, is I was reading an article on cart abandonment that cited having to register on a site as one of the reasons. Just wondered from your folks experience if that was actually the case with Opencart? I am a convert from the lumbering dinosaur that is Zen Cart, where the multi page checkout was a complete nightmare and totally counter productive.

From past experience with other carts, I've seen a lot of people drop the cart at registration. I would highly recommend you have the guest checkout in your checkout process.

I am fully intending to utilise the guest checkout in Opencart Jay. Only reason I am asking the question, is to see what sort of ratio of customers actually go for the guest checkout, rather than register an account. Just being curious

Surprisingly when I asked the development team at Zen Cart if they were planning to implement a quicker checkout process in later versions, all I got was a sarcastic response which basically said that customers love filling long forms in as part of the checkout process. Jeez what planets do those folks live on. Only thing I miss from Zen Cart is the image handler add on. I am assuming that nobody has implemented one of those mouseover zooms into Opencart yet?

Not that I've seen but of course it can be done

We are looking to improve the process in 1.5.x to kinda like this one:
http://www.kohls.com where the account create is an option on the success page instead of a checkout path option.

So instead of:

1. Click Checkout
2. Click Create
3. Enter Address
4. Goto Account success page
5. Click Checkout (again)
6. Choose Shipping
7. Choose Payment
8. Confirm
9. Success


It would be more like
1. Click Checkout
2. Enter Address or login on same page for existing accounts - No Account success page (as it is moot)
3. Choose Shipping
4. Choose Payment
5. Confirm
6. Success with optional password fields for "Save time on your next visit. Create an account by entering a password"

This will bring the 2 checkout paths for normal and guest into 1. Then from there we can work on maybe putting the shipping into the cart page. Or combining payment and shipping, or whatever. But this is the first step.

Would also need an "already registered? Click here to log in" or something along those lines on the first page of course

JAY6390 wrote:Would also need an "already registered? Click here to log in" or something along those lines on the first page of course

The login page will still be there.. or just login fields in the header or something. Plus its on the checkout address page

Qphoria wrote: It would be more like
1. Click Checkout
2. Enter Address or login on same page for existing accounts - No Account success page (as it is moot)
3. Choose Shipping
4. Choose Payment
5. Confirm
6. Success with optional password fields for "Save time on your next visit. Create an account by entering a password"

This will bring the 2 checkout paths for normal and guest into 1. ...

I like that idea very much. Sounds a lot more streamlined, and a more seamless experience for the customer.

The streamlined checkout sounds like an excellent idea. For those making impulse purchases, the sooner a shop owner can get them through the checkout process and have the money off them the better.

One of the best cart checkouts I have seen, has the customer enter the shipping destination and/or shipping service from dropdowns on the cart page. Javacsript then dynamically updates the total. The user then simply presses the PayPal, or Google checkout button and goes straight out to the payment processor. The sales information comes back straight from the payment processor. Simple solution but brilliant in its execution.

Qphoria wrote:We are looking to improve the process in 1.5.x to kinda like this one:
http://www.kohls.com where the account create is an option on the success page instead of a checkout path option.

So instead of:

1. Click Checkout
2. Click Create
3. Enter Address
4. Goto Account success page
5. Click Checkout (again)
6. Choose Shipping
7. Choose Payment
8. Confirm
9. Success


It would be more like
1. Click Checkout
2. Enter Address or login on same page for existing accounts - No Account success page (as it is moot)
3. Choose Shipping
4. Choose Payment
5. Confirm
6. Success with optional password fields for "Save time on your next visit. Create an account by entering a password"

This will bring the 2 checkout paths for normal and guest into 1. Then from there we can work on maybe putting the shipping into the cart page. Or combining payment and shipping, or whatever. But this is the first step.

I love you =)

op_user wrote:I love you =)

I love you two
I have been waiting for a shorter checkout process since late 2008

if you are changing it to be like that I really don't see why you don't go ahead and combine the shipping and payment choices to eliminate a step. I don't see why it would be any more work than eliminating the other steps you are talking about.

Payment methods can be based on cart cost, and cart cost can be changed by shipping, therefore it will need to load the payment gateways via ajax every time the shipping method is changed. it's not impossible, just awkward

JAY6390 wrote:Payment methods can be based on cart cost, and cart cost can be changed by shipping, therefore it will need to load the payment gateways via ajax every time the shipping method is changed. it's not impossible, just awkward

which payment methods are based on cart cost? I haven't seen that option in any of them. They can be based on zone, but that will already be determined since the address will already be known.

Xsecrets wrote:if you are changing it to be like that I really don't see why you don't go ahead and combine the shipping and payment choices to eliminate a step. I don't see why it would be any more work than eliminating the other steps you are talking about.

Qphoria wrote: This will bring the 2 checkout paths for normal and guest into 1. Then from there we can work on maybe putting the shipping into the cart page. Or combining payment and shipping, or whatever. But this is the first step.

Xsecrets wrote:

JAY6390 wrote:Payment methods can be based on cart cost, and cart cost can be changed by shipping, therefore it will need to load the payment gateways via ajax every time the shipping method is changed. it's not impossible, just awkward

which payment methods are based on cart cost? I haven't seen that option in any of them. They can be based on zone, but that will already be determined since the address will already be known.

This is a feature request to link shipping and payments. So that would have to be figured out as well.

Look at this whole issue from a shopper's perspective.

I go on an Opencart powered site. I see a couple of products that I like and add them to the cart. I checkout by filling in all the required data, then get taken to the shipping and payment page. It is ONLY at that stage that i find out if the shipping costs are sensible/acceptable and competitive with other sites, or if they actually ship to my location.

If you have the shipping services available and/or the destination on one or two drop downs on the cart page itself, then the customers knows BEFORE they fill any forms in, what the shipping options are, the cost of that shipping and whether they ship to the potential purchasers location. Javascript will dynamically update the total so the customer knows what the exact cost of everything is, before they checkout.

This shop features a nice example of a good checkout system. Just add a product to the basket, click the checkout and you'll see what I mean in the previous post about giving the shipping costs BEFORE filling in any data.

http://www.happichix.com/

Something like this in Opencart at some leter stage would be a great thing to implement perhaps.

Anything that keeps customers happy and speeds the checkout process is good for all of us.

CUSTOM_UK wrote:This shop features a nice example of a good checkout system. Just add a product to the basket, click the checkout and you'll see what I mean in the previous post about giving the shipping costs BEFORE filling in any data.

http://www.happichix.com/

Something like this in Opencart at some leter stage would be a great thing to implement perhaps.

Anything that keeps customers happy and speeds the checkout process is good for all of us.

It's actually very buggy. It doesn't change the price on country change either so that tells me that ALL items are just flat rate shipped at $15. Things get tricky when you want to show a customer the shipping price without knowing where they are from.

Here is perhaps a better example of the same checkout in action Q.

http://www.ladybead.com/

I know that lots of folks like the shipping estimator in Zen Cart, as it gives shop customers the chance to see what the shipping is BEFORE filling out any data. I hate the time spent filling out forms to be greeted with an extortionate shipping, or even just to know what the shipping cost is... grrrrr

To go out to PayPal or other payment processor, you at least a destination to work out the shipping costs to pass onto the payment provider. I am looking at something that extends the shipping estimator like in the example above. Possibly even have a dropdown for the payment provider too, then the customer could enter their details on the next page, click the following page which could show a summary and giving them the choice to alter any details including shipping or payment provider and you then reduce the whole checkout process to just TWO pages after the cart.

Anything which reduces drawn out checkout processes on ANY shopping Cart has to be a plus point.

Was this ever implemented or is this Guest Checkout?