During the Christmas rush we were getting a lot of calls from customers who could not track their orders and did not receive an order confirmation, in nearly all cases, because they did not include an e-mail address at checkout. To prevent this in the future we've decided to require this but are wondering if anyone else has noticed any unintended consequences from doing so. Are there many customers out there who will bail out because they are required to give an e-mail address?

I don't think so.

But we have had a few who have given bogus email accounts. Interestingly, most of those have also had their charges declined. Oh - and they've also given us fake phone numbers so we can't reach them at all. Then they have the nerve to call and yell at us when they don't get their order in time, and expect us to overnight it at no charge.

It's happened only three times in five years, but bozos like that are difficult to forget.

Seriously, if someone is ordering online they should have an email account. I can't see why they won't provide it when placing an order online.

I don't know if it affects sales because we've always required it. I have nothing to compare it to.

I just don't understand how someone can complain about not being emailed tracking information when they never provided an email address to begin with. People just amaze me.

Thanks for the feedback. I think a lot of them didn't realize that they hadn't provided their e-mail address. They just kind of blew by it. Actually it was kind of fun letting the air out of their balloons when they asked indignantly why they couldn't track and didn't get a confirmation. I think we'll stick with it for a while and see if it has any negative impact. I agree though it shouldn't.

We have gone back and forth on requiring email address. Right now, we do have it required, but I notice that some customers will put in our sales(at)santarosagardens(dot)com email address.

I would think if they didn't put in an email they were up to something.
Ours is required and have not heard any customers upset.
Yes some do put in www or bogus email which of course stops the order for someone to call etc.

Isn't mailorder exciting to keep up with all the fraud attempts.

I wrote a request to awhile ago explaining things that could help fix some things, because not everyone has an email.

Group User Name, Password, and Email within Customer Login
In the section where it asks for username and password can you group this with email address as well?

A lot of people do not have email addresses. So I think it should Say Email, Username, Password and Confirm Password. That way, if they have no email then they can just put a username, and check their order.

I know this is possible if they register first, but I think it would be a good idea to put it in the checkout.

Maybe the text should read:

"The following section below is used by this store to allow you to check the status of your order, and get shipping and tracking information. If you do not have an email address, create a username instead. If you have an email address, you can fill in both fields. We are not asking for your email password, and we recommend that the password you enter here, only be used for you account with this store.

Then have:

Email: ___________ (optional or required based on storeown preference)
Username: ___________ (required)
Password:___________ (required)
confirm password: __________ (required)

Someone, somewhere in this forum posted a great form they had done which connected directly to UPSs site and gave the tracking information based on the order number.



This happened to me as well, and I've been rethinking my non-required email thingy. The answer would be a form that lets a customer enter their order number and get their tracking page from UPS. If anybody finds it, please let me know. It's in here somewhere....

I know it would work, because so many customers called (or, ironically, emailed) because they saw the notice on my site "If you don't supply an email, we can't send you tracking" and they wanna give their email and get their tracking. Argh!

Here is the link at UPS that kind of explains how to set up real time tracking on your site (we used the html version):

http://www.ec.ups.com/ecommerce/solutions/c1a1.html

We do use it and it is great. Customers do not need to log in to track orders. They enter their order ID number (which we enter into the Reference Number 1 in the UPS Worldship software) and can pull up the info. Of course if it has not shipped by UPS then they won't get anything.

You can see an example of how it works here:

http://www.funcollections.com/index.asp?Pa...on=Custom&ID=11

Enter 2122 into the field.

It does save some calls and emails. Plus if we get phone orders, we place the orders through our web site which generates the order ID number. Then we can give this number to the customer so they can track the order online.

Thank you so much, CJS, that was it! I remembered you posting about doing it, and thinking how awesome it was, and then the autumn starts...

Now, if the USPS would do the same...

Just thought of something else: it's going to save time for those customers who call for tracking information - just ask for their order number, no searching for ship dates and then firing up worldship or the ups website. awesome