1. If a customer calls about an order, how do we go about finding their order? same as usual?

2. Don't forget about merchants that conduct B2B via your software. Reorder feature is a selling point and useful tool. Would this feature be scratched?

3. How would you handle Wishlists? In the B2B world, we've spun this feature into a commonly used *frequently purchased* tool.

4. Registries? Not that BV offers this OOTB, how would a customized BV handle registries?

I have a long list of Adobe/Macromedia products. I had to call them the other day since an upgrade installation was not accepting the older product's serial number. The only way the Rep could verify the serial number was by checking my account history to see if I did in fact own a valid older version of the product.

Probably could have provided them with a copy of the UPC Label, but what a PITA if I had to do it.... uggghhh... where's that 2 year old illustrator box again?!?!?!

Marcus,

Username and then a couple security questions. Definitely would've been just as easy, however the installation instructed me to call them. I would've looked for a roundabout way to see if it could be done via the web however I needed it quick, so phone call was the fastest solution.

I've stated my opinion several times about the Account Creation aspect of the BV checkout process. If you're saying that the *Account Creation* process is going to be eliminated while perserving the ability for merchants to easily perform customer lookups, order history access, targeted reports, etc.. Go for it!

As it stands in BV5, my client's have called me more than once asking how they can find a order in the dashboard since the orders are not necessarily recorded correctly during the anonymous checkout process. What stopped the phone calls was the Task Flow update to require an account to be created.

Bob,

I'm not talking about removing logins from the admin side, just from the store side. My argument is that it is possible to help customers get all the same functionality of a user account without asking them to create one. Matt's concern seems to be related to the admin side and how merchants will be able to view order history for a specific customer with that customer having created an account. A fixable problem in my opinion.

Hello Marcus,

I guess you are right. We dont really need a user account to connect a visitor with his past history. We can retrieve a user's history any time given an email address. But think from the following viewpoints:

1. You said we will require at least 2 or 3 key pieces of information to get the order history for the user. Technically it is possible. But how secure is it? Lets say I order a few products from a site and I tell my friends about it. I might even show the order receipt to someone. Now anyone who has the Order Number and may be a Last name or a zip code (which typically people tend to know) will be able to look up the order details, payment details, etc. Even though you only show the last 4 digits of the CC, what about the privacy? Password is a piece of information that people dont share with anyone. But all other pieces of information like Order Number, Billing Date, Billing Address, Zip Code, Last name, etc are all easily achievable. That means we might end up showing order information to anyone who has this basic information.

2. What if I change my email address? How will the site merge old history associated with another email address with the current email address? If you have a plan for merging, read item #3.

3. All order information is now sent through email. And people tend to delete emails. What will happen if a user doesnt have the 2 or 3 key pieces of information? How can he request information from the site? As of today, they can request for the password by providing an email address. What will they request in the future because we dont have a password? Will we send them order information / key pieces of information based on the email address and also may be some other information (which is not really a password)? Then we will end up sending user order history to anyone who knows a person well enough and an email address. This is applicable after a user merges 2 email addresses based on item# 2.

There are a lot of stuff linked with user accounts but I am sure you will find a way to handle them. I am really thinking from a user perspective. How an end user experience would be while ordering and after ordering.

I think you will eventually end up having another key field in addition to the email address. Which is really nothing but similar to a password. Sure technically it makes sense. But from privacy/security side, it might freak out some customers. It would be nice to do an experiment on some set of users. I understand that you are brainstorming here. Its a great idea. Not sure how the market will take it. May be you can try it on a few sites targeting different sets of users and see what the response is.

I think there are significant differences between selling to "consumers" vs "businesses".

I can understand the logic behind "don't ask the consumer for account info" etc, but selling to businesses is a whole other ball game. People come and go, the relationship is often 1 (your business) to many (your customer's users). A non personal account, even if using a particular individual's email and a separate ID or password is usually required. Alternatively, a secure logon via username and password with the ability to communicate via alternative email addresses is required. Here's a scenario...customer (a business) buys 10 seats of your software application and has a support agreement. User X needs to access online support or download a service pack or update that the customer is entiltled to.

In my opinion, in the B2B world, asking the customer to set up an account is not unreasonable and if a prospective customer doesn't want to, you're probably better off without them.

Don't remove the option to force account creation...if anything extend it to more easily provide access to non public "Customer only" or "Partner only" content via groups etc.

Cheers

JP

For a B2B situation an email address combined with gsm sms confirmationcode can make sense. Or confirmation through an email link

Selling to bigger companies with their own erp systems etc brings more complexity.

- make sure the guy is a purchaser and allowed to order

- combined with 30 days nett accounts you want to make sure your bill will be paid

- flexible shipping addresses is also a risk in this area. Ship to his home address and the bill to the company

I'd like a separate (recipient's "ship to") email so a shopper (B2B or grandma sending a present) can enter his recipient's email so BVC and Fed Ex send tracking info to THEM instead of just to the purchaser.

I like the idea of having a choice to make an account or not. But for all of my clients that are using BV for annual membership registration or seminar/convention registration, it sure does help having an account.

My vote is for accounts.
I use my sites for retail and B2B.