I don’t know about you, but usually when I first make a purchase with a brand online, I want the option to checkout as a guest. Being forced to create an account with a brand I have no affinity with yet will generally see me abandoning the cart and going elsewhere.
A Recent Example
Recently, as I was all tucked up in bed and ready to sleep, I remembered a birthday I needed to send a card for urgently. I took to Google on my phone and found a card I liked from a brand I shall leave nameless. I was sleepy and wanted to checkout fast so I could rest my weary head, but when I came to checkout I was greeted with this:
No guest check out! I don’t use Facebook, so my only option was to create an account. Frankly, I was tired, couldn’t be bothered with the faff, and didn’t fancy giving a brand I was yet to have any experience with all of my details and permission to bombard me with emails.
I abandoned the cart, found another nice card elsewhere, and quickly purchased it using guest checkout. I received my order confirmation with the invoice by email, and the card arrived on time.
Next day, thinking about how annoying it was that I couldn’t purchase the card I had originally liked simply and quickly, I took to Instagram stories with a bit of snarkiness.
Fair play to them, the brand in question responded pretty quickly to my snarky story:
This got me pondering the overall pros and cons of having a guest checkout, and why they aren’t universal.
The Pros & Cons Of Guest Checkouts
In a large ongoing study, Baymard Institute has been assessing the usability of checkouts for 60 major eCommerce websites every few years.
On a positive note, the number of sites that force all users into creating an account has decreased slowly since our very first checkout usability benchmark back in 2012. In 2012, 24% of sites forced all users to create an account (i.e., had no “Guest Checkout” option). In 2016 the number decreased to 20%, and in 2020 this is now down to 18%.
Baymard Institute – 2021
So what are the common pros and cons associated checkout as guest functionality, and why aren’t all eCommerce stores including them as an option?
The Pros Of Guest Checkouts
- Reduced cart abandonment – a big problem for eCommerce, with an average of 68% abandoning according to Baymard.
- Faster check out time.
- Little to no customer data retained (GDPR friendly.)
- Buyer required to handover less to you.
- No password to remember.
- Creates a more positive first experience of your brand – users may be more inclined to sign up on their next visit.
The Cons Of Guest Checkouts:
- Unable to personalise repeat visits.
- No email marketing – unless you have a tick box people can select if they would like to receive marketing emails.
- Loyalty programmes are a no.
- No saved order history.
Why You Should Consider Implementing A Guest Checkout Option
Speaking to a lot of people, and considering my own buying habits, many tend to prefer guest checkout on their first purchase with a brand. If that experience is good, they are far more likely to create an account next time.
Consumer trust and loyalty aren’t automatic, they need to be earned through providing a good experience, quality product, and good customer service. You wouldn’t ask someone to move in on the first date, so don’t expect cautious customers to create an account and hand over their data before they’ve sized you up.
Forcing account creation on a first visit can be very off-putting. It feels like a big commitment handing over information to a company you have yet to get the measure of. Not to mention that constantly having to create new accounts and secure passwords can lead to account fatigue.
To me it seems that the pros far outweigh the cons, and UX researchers at Baymard Institute are in agreement. Give people the option over when and if they create an account with your business, and make sure all options are clear and accessible.
It may be desirable as a marketer to snatch up that data and drop users into your marketing email list immediately, but you could be doing more damage to customer growth in the long run by forcing it upfront.
You can always add a create a password option after people have entered their guest checkout information, so they then have the choice to create an account with less effort involved. But there’s no point in forcing their hand. Otherwise, they might be grumpy like me and call you out for it on social media.
