The Number 1 Error Made By Online Retailers

The other week I was discussing the issues I have with my knees when running and it was suggested I buy a knee support. So being the web-literate and lazy person that I am, I did a quick Google search in order to find a purveyor of said items. Every site I went to required me to create an account before being able to make a purchase.

Which brings me on nicely to the Number 1 Error Made By Online Retailers…
Why, oh why, oh why, do I need to sign up, create an account or join your community in order to purchase something from you?

All I want is a knee support, a bunch of flowers, a simple birthday gift; I’m not looking for a long term relationship at this point. If you do well this time and manage to deliver what I ordered, on time and for a reasonably price I may very well come back, but I don’t know you well enough yet. I don’t want to worry about how you store my password, address and credit card details, or whether you’re going to send me spam.

The number one thing that will make me leave your website and probably never come back is requiring me to open an account in order to complete a simple and potentially one-off purchase. I don’t have to do it when I shop in the high street, so why do you feel it’s ok on the Web?

A couple of years ago I used to spend a lot of time and money at Overclockers.co.uk. Their prices weren’t the lowest but the website was simple and uncluttered, and more importantly I didn’t need to create an account. Just find what I want to buy, go to the checkout, fill in the absolute minimum details for completing a credit card transaction over the internet and that’s it. Then they redesigned their site and included the apparently obligatory “My Account” functionality. Unfortunately the redesigned site was almost identical to Dabs and eBuyer and had totally lost its simple and original look and feel. Seeing as I already had accounts with eBuyer and Dabs and didn’t want another one, I stopped shopping there.

If you’re a web developer creating online retail sites, think twice before requiring an account before allowing a user to make a purchase, you could be causing your client to lose sales…