Does creating an account or logging in take you out of the checkout?

This was a very difficult tactic to evaluate as many times it was unclear as to whether you were still in the checkout process or not. It appears that maintaining a flow for the user is beneficial. In some categories such as low ticket items, a 2 point lift in conversion rate was achieved if users were not shuffled out of the checkout process and forced to create an account or log in. This may have something to do with maintaining a scent for users. Bumping them around a site may be distracting as navigation and visuals often change. However, if a retailer provides the means to determine final prices including shipping and taxes prior to asking for personal information, this measurement becomes less important.

Costco.com was the biggest culprit of the Top 100 retailers as items could not be added to or viewed inside of a cart until you had created an account or logged in. This may be attributable to their business model, but even non-Costco members can make purchases on the site (for a 5% surcharge). We found this to be one of the most disruptive experiences of all tactics evaluated.

33% of Top 100 retailers push shoppers out of the checkout process to force registration or log in.

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