This article is about the optimization of what I consider to be one of the lowest hanging fruits for ecommerce websites, the checkout process. It can also relate to other types of web properties that require customers to pass through an online checkout process in order to purchase products or services.

Definitions: a locked checkout is an online process that requires visitors to create an account in order to complete a purchase. Usually requires them to create provide a name and a password before the order is processed. A guest checkout is a checkout that leaves allows shoppers to buy products/services without asking them to create a username and a password.

The article is split in three parts. In the first part we will look at the psychological impact of the non-guest checkouts by utilizing an analogy of a brick and mortar shopping experience and a Sign In page for an online checkout. In the second and third part we look at the numbers needed to evaluate how much money you’re leaving on the table if you don’t offer a guest checkout option.

Part I: The psychological impact of a locked checkout

No matter how much effort you put into paid advertising or other traffic acquisitions strategy, there will be not much value if your website is not converting browsers into customers at an acceptable rate.

For the purpose of our article we’ll assume that you’ve spent resources to improve your landing pages. They are perfect: there’s no flaw between your keywords, ads and landing pages, your ad messages are in alignment with your visitors’ goals, your landing pages are matching their expectations and persona, and so on.

Your visitors are ready to buy from you and they click on the highly desired call to action button, the Add to Cart, and then they proceed to your Secure Checkout. On the first page of the checkout process, or the so called Sign In page, can visitors buy from your store without strings attached, more specifically, can they start the checkout process as guests?

If not, here’s how how a  similar “welcome” on the Sign In page could sound in a brick and mortar store:

If you like to buy something from us you first have to create an account – here’s a nice form for you to fill it out -, give us some private details such as your email address and your full name, tell us exactly where you live and share with us your credit card information. If you don’t want to do the aforementioned, sorry, we can’t sell you.

Would you buy from stores if they would ask you all of the above? I bet you wouldn’t. Similarly, that is what is going through the minds of your website’s visitors.

When we fill forms (online and offline) we are asked to share pieces of information such as names, addresses, phone numbers and even more sensitive ones like credit card details. Automatically, our brains will enter suspicious mode and will start asking questions such as why do you need my shipping address or why do you need my full name. Some of these questions will have obvious mental answers and will be answered in the unconscious mode. But other questions will trigged F.U.D’s (fears, uncertainties and doubts) which will be affecting goal completion rates and the overall website conversion rate.

Some visitors (and by some I mean lots of them) will ask themselves why are you requiring them to fill certain fields or why do you need them to complete some actions, i.e. why do I need to create an account to buy a product/service or Why do you need my email address to ship me something physical?

And when they start asking themselves, they start to leave/abandon the checkout process. And when they start leaving the checkout process, you start loosing money. How many? Stay tuned and I’ll show you two methods for calculating how much money you’re leaving on the table with locked checkouts.

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