Add option to automatically create account at checkout

[maxrice]

It'd be really cool to have an option at checkout where the user can check "create an account" and an account is created for them using their email as username and a randomly generated password. As discussed in awesomemotive/easy-digital-downloads#1172, this helps improve checkout conversions as there are less fields for the user to fill out.

[coenjacobs]

+1 on this idea - adding it to 2.1 milestone temporarily and we'll discuss soon if it's gonna be in that release.

[coenjacobs]

We have decided to punt this idea to a future release, not going to follow up for version 2.1.

I have added it to our Roadmap, listed under "Ideas or future releases".

[amber007]

It would be better to have a separate page where customers are given the option to buy as guest or create an account or sign in with an existing account.

[douglsmith]

As we discussed over on that EDD issue, using the e-mail address as a username can have some very negative ramifications.

I first started out using WooCommerce with the "Register using the email address for the username" feature turned on. The end result is that a user's e-mail address is displayed publicly (as the username) if the user ever comments on a post or product, or if you use bbPress or BuddyPress and that user participates in discussions.

For us it became a huge customer service burden because we have active bbPress forums and WordPress doesn't allow users to change their username. We ended up manually doing lots of user name changes for customers. Plus, it's a big privacy and spam address harvesting concern.

That said, I would love to have more (or all) customers with accounts so I wouldn't have to deal with customers coming back later who want to re-download their purchase but didn't bother to create an account.

I also prefer an approach that doesn't make the customer answer something else during the checkout flow and possibly contribute to cart abandonment. Asking to create an account after the transaction is complete would be great. Also allowing a customer to create an account later that claims past purchases would be ideal.

But if it is necessary for some reason to create a username automatically, I recommend making it a random string, a hash based on the e-mail address, or maybe the first part of the address before the @ sign.

[maxrice]

Using email addresses as username is very common and I think this makes sense for the large majority of sites that aren't publicly displaying the username anywhere. @douglsmith - you should be able to change bbPress/BuddyPress to use the display name or something else instead of the username if this is a particular issue with your sites.

[douglsmith]

I think this makes sense for the large majority of sites that aren't publicly displaying the username anywhere.

All WordPress sites publicly display the username by default. Just leave a comment on the blog. Plus, the default WooCommerce template for a product review uses the WordPress comment system and displays the username by default too—like this…

you should be able to change bbPress/BuddyPress to use the display name or something else instead of the username if this is a particular issue with your sites.

True, users can choose a nickname and set that as their display name. It has been my experience that most non-technical users don't figure that out without help. Plus, they only seem to notice after being shocked at the privacy breach of seeing their e-mail address displayed publicly. That's not good for customer relations or support load.

[maxrice]

True, users can choose a nickname and set that as their display name. It has been my experience that most non-technical users don't figure that out without help.

right, I meant some custom code to default the display name to something like "Max R." instead of using their username.

I agree that displaying the email address isn't a good thing, I just don't think the best way to fix it is by changing how the username is created.

[douglsmith]

I just don't think the best way to fix it is by changing how the username is created.

FYI, Using the e-mail address for a username is an option in WooCommerce, but it's not the default setting.

[maxrice]

Yeah, I mean when usernames are created using the email address we shouldn't modify the email address prior to creation :)