On 07/10/2012 08:41, charlescorrigan wrote:
> Hi,
> The website requires an account but does not take credit card details.
> All credit card handling is done by PayPal as we are not set up to
> secure details of credit cards.
> The reason that we require an account is that we have to have a place to
> store your shipping address (if ordering hard copy) or to store the
> links to your downloads (if ordering electronic copy).
This can probably be solved. Don't call it an account.
And don't make customers *feel forced* to create the account.
Think of the flow, from a customer perspective.
- I want to purchase the book
- I select the book(s)
- I decide I want to pay for them.
- I provide my contact/shipment details
You ask me if I agree with you storing those details for the purpose
of providing me with future access to my purchases. [_] Check.
- I provide payment details.
You ask me if I agree with your General Terms [_] Check. Privacy Policy [_] Check.
- We go to the payment provider, complete the financial transaction.
- You send me a confirmation by mail, with a link to my 'bookshelf'/'purchase history'.
- I now have an account, and access to my purchase.
As a vendor you see the account as primary requirement. That may be true, but
focus on the purchase first. Just make sure we don't lose contact after the
purchase, but that's a joint responsibility.
Check out other specialist online (eBook) stores, like smashwords, pragpub, or leanpub.
On occasion I have had some issues of me creating dual accounts (one with my preferred
mail address, and one with my paypal account's mail address), but that got resolved
easily with one or two emails.
Cheers,
Henk