The debate over whether online retailers should make customer registration compulsory before purchasing has gone on for some years now. John Ryder picks sides and takes a look at some of the UK's most successful online retail sites to review how they approach the issue.

There was time when I was in favour of making customer registration compulsory. "We can build a powerful database, customise email marketing campaigns and better understand our customers", I'd forcefully declare.

There are customer benefits too...

1. On-site personalisation (once logged in). Think "Amazon".
2. Wish lists.
3. Saved basket contents.
4. Order status and tracking.
5. Delivery details are stored for fast checkout.

What I'd failed to fully understand was how many customers could be lost as a result.

So let's look at the options and the brands that are using them...

1) No registration

This option is clearly the quickest for one-off customer purchases and is the adopted approach for Comet. Ordering from Comet is as simple as entering a postcode, preferred delivery time, your details (address, email and telephone), payment details and that's it – you’ve successfully placed an order.

One has to expect that this has a sizeable positive effect on checkout abandonment rates for the electrical giant. We’re going to try this method with some A / B testing in place on the next willing Silverbean client and I'll report our findings here in the Silver Tongue.

2) Compulsory registration

In usability studies there are few things that draw as much user frustration as the requirement to register. I now consider this approach to offer little more than unnecessary purchase friction in the checkout process.

Somewhat surprisingly, it's still used by many of the UK’s top online retailers, including ASOS, Marks & Spencer and Littlewoods. Whilst these heavyweight brands might be able to get away with compulsory registration, smaller online retailers shouldn’t expect to be so fortunate.

3) Optional registration before completion

One very familiar mode of capturing customer registration is to offer optional registration before purchase completion. It can be executed in a number of ways, some of which are better than others.

Swarovski choose to provide three options at the very start of the process:

* Direct order — With no need to register.

* Login — For existing customers.

* Set up an account — For customers who want to store their details.

Argos provide the option to register as part of their delivery address checkout page.

4) Optional registration after completion

Offering customers the opportunity to register their details after completion is an approach that is gaining momentum and one that has been adopted by John Lewis. After the purchase is completed, one can select to create a password.

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