javascript email check

javascript email check - your thoughts wanted

How about the possibility for returning customers to fill in their email and the javascript fills in their other details.

Legends like Corey Rudl (I know he died) run their shopping cart like that, first they ask the visitor the email address, then they check against the database and if it is a customer they just fill in the details and the customer can go for the easy cehckout.

Now we force the customer to log in first before they can checkout, this makes it harder.

What are your experiences and thoughts about this, maybe we can ask Alex to do something here.

thanks

Members can order additional products from the member.php page without filling out any additional info.

David

let me explain

davidm, I know members can do that, but that is just the point, I lead my members to a new offer and they decide to buy, but now I first force them to log in. Most people do not have those details handy, so they need to go find their login details, or click on forgotten password, before you know it the customer is just gone because it was meant to be easy to buy from me.

From all I have seen every step extra just lowers conversion, so why not make it easier. It is not just one step, but on average three steps I guess.

skippybosco, I agree it does just that, but then again, who is going to do that, just fill in an emailaddress to find someones address details? Visitors get to the page because they decided to buy.

From what I have seen with my conversions, one step less in a checkout process just means an increase in conversion of more than 20% and that adds up.

It all has to do with reducing shopping cart abandon, now I have a question for you, can you perhaps come up with reasons why this could work better or how it could work better, also taking into consideration your apprehensions.

Thanks for your time and input!

Gotta agree with skippybosco- having a form fill in customer details for an email is a huge privacy risk. It wouldnt be so hard to write a program to phish for info using a long list of email addresses.

But, I also agree that the number of steps to place a repeat order needs to be reduced somehow. Not sure how to do that though- even amazon requires you to relogin before ordering.

David