Stand with The seamless checkout process is one of the vital components of a successful customer journey. Unfortunately, checkout could also be one of the reasons for cart abandonment and bounce rates.
The longer and more difficult the checkout process is on your store, the more likely customers are going to leave without making a purchase. They are also extra cautious about the personal information they share online. That is why they are not very attracted by the forced registration.
Magento enables you to provide a better experience for your customers and eliminate cart abandonment with a built-in solution — Magento 2 Guest Checkout.
And in this article, we’re going to cover what it is, how it works and analyze all its benefits and drawbacks.
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What is Magento 2 Guest Checkout?
Guest checkout in Magento is the process that allows your customers to make a purchase and checkout without registration. If customers want they can register an account after the checkout.
By default guest checkout is enabled in Magento 2. If you need you, can disable it and force customers to register an account to make a purchase. However, it is proven to be the reason for leaving the checkout in 24% of cases.
How to Enable Guest Checkout in Magento 2?
You can manage guest checkout in Stores > Configuration > Sales > Checkout > Checkout Options.
Just enable or disable the Allow Guest Checkout option to allow or deny your customer to place orders as guests.
Once an order is placed they, will be able to create an account afterwards.
Pros and Cons of Guest Checkout
If you’re not yet convinced Magento 2 guest checkout is the best option, let’s review these advantages and disadvantages to unveil your doubts.
Faster Checkout Process
Usually, when customers go to checkout, they realize that they can’t complete it without registration. So, they have to navigate to the registration page, go back to the shopping cart and finally checkout, if checkout at all.
After all, they might not want a product that much to go through all these steps to get it. Guest checkout makes the process more direct and faster. It allows customers to checkout without sharing any vulnerable data by filling out just a few fields.
Even if they want to create an account, they can do it on the checkout page or after.
Isn’t it better to leave that choice to your customers?
Better Shopping Experience
Imagine that you’ve found a perfect product, added it to your shopping cart and went to the checkout to get it. However, suddenly you’re told you can’t get it that easily. You need to register an account and fill out all of the required fields.
Would you honestly want to go through the forced registration or rather find a store that allows you to buy a product without it?
Always place yourself in your customers’ shoes since their experience is your top priority.
Magento 2 guest checkout not only makes checking out faster but also more convenient for your customers.
Increased Conversion Rates
Guest checkout in Magento 2 is a perfect solution from customers’ perspective since they don't have to worry about data exploitation and complicated checkout.
So, as long as your checkout is fast and easy, you should see conversion rates rise up. Customers won’t abandon their carts and will enjoy the uninterrupted shopping process.
Want to track how many customers add their shipping/payment information on checkout or finish checkout successfully? Add Magento 2 Google Tag Manager to your store and get in-depth data reports on customers' behaviour.
Limited Marketing Opportunities
Though it provides ultimate benefits for the customers, guest checkout in Magento 2 still has some drawbacks from a store owner's perspective. Guest checkout doesn’t allow gathering much information about the customers.
As a result, websites miss on the marketing opportunities. They can’t send any promotions, newsletters, follow-ups, or run email campaigns due to limited data collected.
Small Customer Database
If customers checkout as guests on your Magento 2 store, you will have poor customer database performance. Correspondingly, you won’t be able to manage customer groups effectively and create personalized experiences for them.
However, you can still gather customer information and increase your customer database even with the Magento 2 guest checkout.
Want to know how?
Keep on reading.
Convert Guest Customers to Registered Customers
To eliminate the drawbacks of Magento 2 guest checkout for store owners we want to introduce a solution that will make you benefit from guest checkout too - .
The module itself is a great advantage to your store since it allows you to convert guest orders to customer accounts. It also has plenty of other options that enable you to manage guest orders more effectively.
Want to convert guests to customers automatically?
Prefer to do it manually?
Want to subscribe converted customers to a newsletter or assign them to some customer group?
All these and other features are available for you with Guest to Customer module.
And don’t worry if you already have plenty of old guest orders, this extension will convert them too just in one click.
You’re welcome to check it on our live demo — create guest orders and try the extension out to its full extent.
Customers and conversions are the goals of every business. However, sometimes attracting customers is much easier than driving conversions. Guest checkout is a perfect option that ensures a smooth and uninterrupted shopping process customers are striving for.
Since Magento provides you with this feature by default, you should definitely explore it. And Magento 2 Guest to Customer Extension will make sure Magento 2 guest checkout is a benefit from both customer and store owner perspectives.
