Following up on previous posts about permission marketing and welcome emails for ecommerce websites, I’d like to share my personal experience registering for 87 accounts with the top online retailers and offer some tips for registration form design.

Your site may have several forms that ask for personal information - for email subscriptions, creating an account, entering billing information, requesting help, general contact, creating a wishlist or order tracking. It’s important to note that in my test I was taking initiative to sign up for an account by clicking “Register” or “My Account”. I did not reach these forms in the middle of a checkout process (required registration).

Popular Form Fields and Frequency

1. Password - 100%

Obviously this is a requirement for all sites, but 100% required users to invent their own passwords rather than sending computer-generated temporary passwords (which are terribly annoying). But Dell and Nieman Marcus failed to mention clearly that their passwords require at least one number until you fail at your first password attempt.

2. Repeat Password Field - 89%

Though it takes a small amount of extra time, this is recommended because it’s easy to make errors when you only see **** as you type. How frustrating for customers when they cannot log in because the password they *thought* they entered is wrong.

Continue Reading:
Registration Usability - 87 Registration Forms Tested »

While preparing their upcoming report Customer Focus Study, 2007, Future Now observed “nearly half of the top online retailers still require people to register before they checkout.

The issue is not whether site registration itself is a bad idea, there are clearly benefits to both customer and seller which I will mention in a moment. The question is: Why are ecommerce websites still making registration a requirement, and asking for registration before the checkout process — especially when most of the user’s information will be entered in a standard checkout process anyhow?

How Registration Benefits the Customer

• Facilitates post purchase order tracking
• Allows visitors to bookmark products for later / add to wishlists and so on
• Enables one-click re-order convenience
• Makes for a quicker checkout process next visit
• Allows user to submit product reviews
• Registrants may be entitled to loyalty discounts and other creative membership perks (you gotta motivate ‘em!)
• Shipping and tax estimates are easier when the user’s zipcode is remembered
• Makes it easy for B2B customers to open and maintain accounts for scheduled orders

Continue Reading:
Required Registration: Top Etailers’ Favorite Usability Mistake »