For any of you who sell products through your website, do you notice a difference in conversions when you allow your customers to purchase without registering on your website? At first I was going to just have everyone register but I'm beginning to think the option to buy without registering would allow me to sell more.
As a CUSTOMER, I prefer to be able to make a one time purchase. Especially if its a place I dont' buy from a lot, I don't want the hassle of having to keep up with yet another username and password.
I agree completely, I hate sites that force me to register rather than just buy the product.. I appreciate the feedback!
I have not purchased before simply because I didn't want to bother with registration. I think its a good move to allow one-time buys w/o registering
I have done quite a bit of testing, and there is a huge difference in conversion rates between required and not required situations. The best system that I have come up with is automatically creating a way for a visitor to log back into your site to view their shipping / order progress. You can automatically generate something and still keep their information private enough so that there are no privacy concerns. At the very most, make registration optional, but if you do have it on there, make it very clear that it is optional. There are times where registration should be used, but for the most part it will hurt a site's conversions.
I agree wholeheartedly with jestep. I shouldn't have to create an account just to purchase something, but it would be nice to be able to log back in to check my orders. Accounts should provide some tangible benefit to the customer. There should be a real reason why they need one, and not just because you want their email address.