Ditching the Account
The first thing I would want to do, in my theoretical perfect implementation, is get rid of user accounts completely. Don’t make users sign up and fill out reams of personal information. Just stay out of their way as much as possible.
So, how do we associate things like order histories or downloads with the correct users without accounts? By using 2 pieces of information that they already have: their PayPal email address and a transaction ID. That works because only PayPal, the store, and the account holder have access to both pieces of information at the same time. Even if you don’t get the email, you can simply look up the transaction ID in your PayPal history.
Naturally, you wouldn’t want to have to plug in individual transaction IDs to review individual orders, so any transaction ID from any previous order you made would also work. The objective here is to have as much of a “it just works” user experience as possible, so simply entering your PayPal email address and a transaction ID effectively counts as a login. This would allow you to check order statuses, your download history, or whatever other store actions need to be tied to a specific account.
For convenience, you would also be able to specify a passphrase. Not a password, but a passphrase. How many times have you been at some random site or the other, and they give you grief over your password choice by requiring some godawful combination of letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and length that virtually guarantees you’re just gonna end up writing it on a Post-It note stuck to your monitor or mashing the “Forgot Password” link every time you visit? The worst thing is, it doesn’t really help all that much.
Here’s a favorite comic on the subject, which illustrates why:
So, painless and nearly foolproof login the first time, plus the convenient option of using a passphrase for future logins. So far, so good.
Next up, checkout flow.
I was making a payment on a cruise when I realized that even though I’d input the zip code, I had to input the state. Totally redundant. You may well be on to something, but, I’m afraid programmers and managers all too often regard the customer’s time and effort as having zero value. Then, they wonder why they’re losing customers. You’re on to something.
Ooops. I’m anonymous up there.
OK, now I’m book shopping and I have to login again after every “add to cart.” Mr. Roe, get your programming done stat!
I don’t like the fact that after you approve a payment in PayPal, the business can go back and add charges to your PayPal account without asking permission.
I have had this happen a number of times. Sometimes it was an honest mistake when they calculated the amount wrong the first time, but they will send the new charge without asking permission and PayPal will just send more funds.
I have also had this happen with a few merchants in China on E Bay.
I approve a charge and a few days later an additional $3 handling fee from them shows up that I didn’t authorizes.
User accounts are a real pain in the @$$ for me… I’ve been dissuaded several times from making a purchase because the webstore wanted a complete ancestral history [/sarcasm]. If I don’t plan to make regular purchases from a particular seller, I don’t see the point of creating a user account – I’m totally with you on that point.
Someone once told me that websites mine their user account data for sales and demographic info… this, too, makes me not want to engage in e-commerce. The comparison you made between e-commerce and walking into a store really struck a chord: I don’t want to give a company anything other than my money in exchange for their product.
I like all of your points, really. How soon can we begin to force webstores to implement them? 😉
Being an international student what I hate is that I can not use my U.S. Paypal in the U.K. as it refuses to ship to my U.K. address. I would have to create a brand new PayPal in the U.K. with a different history. Why should I need two accounts, I’m assuming it is some stupid Homeland Security law to stop funding terrorism. I don’t know a lot of Terrorists that play GURPS, 40K, and make paper models. Well I don’t know any terrorists so perhaps I’m wrong.
Only 4 people participating in this discussion so far? I guess it’s still too early for The Revolution. 😆
I’m finding online shopping pretty good at the moment. Having said that, I always use paypal and rarely buy anything I can’t download. An exchange rate of $1.4/£1 may have something to do with my positive attitude.
Well, I’d like to have at least the CHOICE if I want to create an account or not. Filling out all the forms just for ordering one item – is that really necessary? :-/
Concerning your approach, Christopher, I find it quite interesting. Would be nice to try that 😉
Yeah, I’m planning to do a little testbed and see how it handles in practice. A lot of it is made possible by PayPal’s various APIs, especially the combination of Express Checkout with Digital Goods. Their documentation makes my head hurt, but I gotta stay sharp. 🙂