I have a similar question, I'll use this opportunity to ask it:
If I present the visitor a thing or a service he can buy, is it bad that I need him to sign up separately and confirm his e-mail before he can actually press "place order"?
I guess it sounds bad from how I'm saying it, but my concerns are the security (confirmed e-mail = you can reach the person) and work investment (creating a form that would do two logically-separate things at the time is more work).
So what do you guys think? Should I let people do anything without a confirmed e-mail address and work on merging sign-up, sign-in and place-order forms together?
The company was Best Buy. Look at the stats which show that requiring registration essentially never helps. About the only time it would is for (very?) frequent visitors.
You don't need "security" for orders other than making order ids non-guessable. For customer service people can give their order id and other details if necessary (eg zip code, name).
Requiring email confirmation almost always decreases conversion and frequently in a major way. You should have a very good reason for confirming an email address (for example, PayPal tying payments to email addresses) or don't do it (or do it passively; ie, if someone happens to click on a link in an email you send them, mark the email address as confirmed).
I disabled the limits for unconfirmed users and will create a merged form as soon as possible.
The development flow looks like this to me right now: First I built a strictly REST/model-centered back-end, and now I have to smooth the corners between user-friendliness and those standards. Interesting observation.
Reduce friction whenever possible. Allow the user to place an order before the confirmation, but limit the account until the user does. Also show an alert after a successful order that an email confirmation is being sent out and an option to resend it.
I would say you should combine them. As long as you provide an easy way for contacting in case they have a problem, they best thing you can do is simplify the registration/purchase process.
If I present the visitor a thing or a service he can buy, is it bad that I need him to sign up separately and confirm his e-mail before he can actually press "place order"?
I guess it sounds bad from how I'm saying it, but my concerns are the security (confirmed e-mail = you can reach the person) and work investment (creating a form that would do two logically-separate things at the time is more work).
So what do you guys think? Should I let people do anything without a confirmed e-mail address and work on merging sign-up, sign-in and place-order forms together?