Toll Free: 1-877-695-7388

GTA: (647) 699-2838

Search Engine People
  • SEO
  • SEM
  • CRO
  • Display
  • Blog
  • Why Us
  • Contact
  • Join Our Team
  • Get A Quote

Toll Free: 1-877-695-7388

GTA: (647) 699-2838

How Registration Forms Can Affect Your Conversion Rate

Helen M. Overland | June 27th, 2013
Tweet54
Share16
Share
Pin
70 Shares

Driving Customers Away

Many E-Commerce sites offer you the ability to register on the site to make it easier to shop online. The site can then remember your address, name, email, and shipping details so you don't need to enter them every time you shop with that website.

Interestingly though, is the number of E-Commerce sites that require you to sign up for an account before you're ever allowed to place an order. How many times have you been on a website and gone to place an order, and the site has asked you to create an account before you're allowed to go through the checkout. Sadly, this is the default state for a number of E-Commerce platforms.

Think about it this way. Imagine you go to a store, you spend time looking at what you want to buy. You grab it and take it to the checkout to buy it. Then the cashier says, "I need a password before you can buy". You say "no, I just want to buy this". The cashier says "I need a password before you can buy". You say, "just sell me this, I'll create an account if I like the product and want to buy more". The cashier says "I need a password before you can buy". The outcome is predictable.

The fact of the matter is, 88% of online adults don't like being asked to register on a website.

1
And why would they? All they want to do is buy something, they don't want a long term relationship with you. And it's pushy of you to expect a second date when you haven't even made the main course.

Despite the fact that businesses are spending more and more money to get visitors to their site, 97% of new visitors do not convert the first time they arrive at your site.

2

In fact, 73% of online shoppers agree that their path to purchase is more complex and less direct than it used to be.

3
We're actually making it *harder* for people to convert!

Think that getting people to register with your site increases the likelyhood that they'll return and purchase again? Think again! That password that you had people set up? Well 90% of people claim to have left a website when they forgot their login information.

4
That's a lost customer, not a retained one.

Key Takeaways:

Want to increase your conversions rates? Make it easy for people to buy from you. It's so simple! Here's a few tips to increase your conversion rate:

  1. Remove mandatory logins before people can purchase from you.
  2. If you do ask for a password, make it optional, and not the first step in the funnel
  3. Whatever you do, DON'T require an email verification before people can buy from you
  4. If you do let people set up accounts, make the email address their login name. They won't forget that. Well, probably not. No guarantees.

Oh, and finally - Test! Don't assume that everything is going well. Always be running A/B testing to see if you can improve your conversion rates further. You never know how high you can push your conversion rates until you try.

Notes:

  1. Online Americans Fatigued by Password Overload Janrain Study Finds ↩
  2. Learn how to remarket your AdWords ads to previous website visitors in a live webinar ↩
  3. PDF ↩
  4. Site Registration Seen Driving Away Majority of Consumers ↩
Tweet54
Share16
Share
Pin
70 Shares
Posted in Conversion Optimization

About the Author: Helen M. Overland

Vice President at Search Engine People, helping clients with Conversion Optimization, Analytics, and On-Page SEO. Online Marketer since June 2000, Internet geek since 1994. Follow me on twitter at @semlady to see what I'm reading now.

http://www.searchenginepeople.com/

2 thoughts on “How Registration Forms Can Affect Your Conversion Rate”

  1. Constança Viagem says:
    June 28, 2013 at 9:13 am

    Couldnt agree more, registration forms should only be used when really necessary, i think 88% is still kind of low…

    1. Ruud Hein says:
      June 28, 2013 at 9:49 am

      Constança, what do you think about those one-click type of registrations where you sign up with your Facebook or Google account?

Comments are closed.

Recent Posts

  • Maximizing Your E-Commerce Sales:
    A CRO Audit Guide
  • Movin’ On Up! Why Migrating to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) Should be a Priority
  • A Year in Review: The Digital Marketing Trends That Defined 2021
  • The Basics of Video Marketing
  • Just How Much Do Google Reviews Impact Your SEO Ranking?

Categories

  • Analytics & ROI Analysis
  • Company News
  • Content
  • Conversion Optimization
  • CRO
  • Display Advertising/RTB
  • Email Marketing
  • En Español
  • En Français
  • Inbound Marketing
  • Lead Nurture & Marketing Automation
  • Local Search
  • Marketing
  • Mobile
  • Partnership Marketing
  • PPC
  • PR
  • SEO
  • Social Media Marketing
  • Web Design

Additional Posts

9 Tips on Improving the Quality of Your Marketing Content

June 27th, 2013 | by Danny Ashton

The Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Use an Editorial Calendar

June 26th, 2013 | by GloriaRand

How To Spot Your Potentially Harmful Links

June 26th, 2013 | by Wayne Barker

LET'S TALK

Need more information or want to get in touch?

Get in touch!
  • SEO
  • SEM
  • Display
  • Blog
  • Why Us
  • Join Our Team
  • Contact Us
  • Local SEO
  • Small Business SEO
  • Enterprise SEO
  • International SEO

LOCATION

1305 Pickering Parkway,
5th Floor Pickering, L1V 3P2

PHONE

Toll Free: 1-877-695-7388
Greater Toronto Area: (647) 699-2838

Social

© Search Engine People Inc. 2023 – Canada’s Top Digital Agency
© SEP 2023 – A Search Engine People Company | Privacy Policy

Search Engine People