[benmorris]

I removed all registration and login components during checkout. Most people have an auto complete setup on their browser now and most of my sales are first time customers. Granted I have a small subset of return customers that ask for it, but I know from years past introducing registration opens up a whole set of barriers to the checkout process. Order confirmation pages are essentially a page they can return to at any point in the future without logging in.

I also removed the coupon code box completely from checkout. I used to get bombarded with requests for discount codes and people not getting their codes to work. In reality the way I used codes were in email promotions. I switched to instant redeeming clickable codes in emails and removed it all the boxes on the site. I also know it was a significant factor in checkout flow because I could google "mybrand.com " into google and google instantly starting adding in "mybrand.com coupon codes" "mybrand.com promo codes". People see the coupon code box and immediately head to Google to search for codes.

PayPal Express checkout is still a huge choice for customers. They can choose express checkout or standard checkout flow. Many people use it (30-40%). It removes the need to enter their address as well.

[petercooper]

People see the coupon code box and immediately head to Google to search for codes.

If your system would still benefit from a discount code and you're not selling low margin products, it's a good idea to "seed" those discount sites with permanent codes for very minor discounts (even just 4%, say). People feel like they've had a win even when the discount is minor.

[benmorris]

I've experimented with this. It is difficult to measure if I'm giving away money unnecessarily or completing a sale I'd otherwise miss. Good point though.

[jstarfish]

It depends on your industry and customer base.

When I was working with one that was primarily female and cost-conscious, that trick worked great. The fact that a code existed helped drive organic referrals (the code alone was enough to route traffic to me instead of a competitor).

Don't make it permanent or you definitely are giving money away to Googling cheapskates. Change it often-- people are excited by novelty anyway.

[nickjj]

What's interesting about the coupon code thing is if you look at Shopify's checkout page, they include it as an input field along with supporting URL based coupons. I can only guess they've done a massive amount of A / B testing since they have many thousands of stores and millions of transactions.

There's a number of benefits to supporting both IMO:

If someone is talking about your product on a podcast or audio form, being able to say "enter in promo code BENISCOOL at checkout to save 10%" is useful. But then in the show notes, they can link directly to the URL based coupon link. That is much cleaner than having to explain how the show notes link already has the coupon, and you must click that link specifically to get the applied discount. It also works in cases where show notes aren't available (ie. radio -- although that use case is very rare for a digital store).

Another benefit of having it as a text input is during email promotion launches. For example, you might decide to put up your product for sale as part of an initial promo, but then in your email copy say something like "By the way, the next 15 people who use coupon code ABC123 will save an extra $10". You can't really do that with URL-only codes, unless you happened to include a second link in the email (technically could work I suppose, but it loses its appeal and becomes less clear on how it works).

Lastly, another potential use case for input based coupon codes is doing some form of price parity based on geo location. You may want to show people from XYZ country a way to get a discount by entering in a code at checkout, but having it in non-URL form allows you to word it in such a way that it's optional. So if the person happens to live in XYZ country but they are well off enough not to need the discount, they might pay the normal price to show support.

But like you said, the down side is people might hesitate to find a coupon. That's a very hard thing to measure.

Checkout is super interesting to me because I'm currently developing a platform to sell digital items and the check out flow is what I'm currently developing.

[jrochkind1]

> Order confirmation pages are essentially a page they can return to at any point in the future without logging in.

Do they need to have the URL to do so?

Hmm, I suppose one could have a feature, without accounts, where you enter your email address and get emailed to you (at that address), your order history with links to individual orders.

I think you are right that at most ecommerce sites, registration does not provide too much value for the user (and is a barrier to sales). I know I am always annoyed when an ecommerce site asks me to or makes me register, and if given the option almost always choose not to register. (Exceptions for sites I use very regularly; maybe everyone is hoping their site will be one of these. :) )

[benmorris]

I encourage people to save their order confirmation email which contains a secure URL back to the website which has their original order and links to reorder the same items. Simple and effective. I've used this method for about 8 years.

[TazeTSchnitzel]

Another approach is that, with the set of details someone has to provide anyway when making an order, you could easily offer the option to create an account after the sale.

[jhayward]

> PayPal Express checkout is still a huge choice for customers

It really is a big advantage, for whatever reason customers choose it.

Relatedly, just yesterday I had my first web-based Apple Pay experience and man, was it ever smooth and fast. I can see it becoming an equally important 'checkout brand' experience for people in the Apple ecosystem.

[graeme]

How does a url based coupon work for users who want to look at reviews/product descriptions?

Ie does the flow take them straight to checkout, or does it apply the code to any relevant product they add to their cart?

[benmorris]

It is tied to their session ID / shopping cart. They are free to modify the cart and it recalculates the discount.

[graeme]

Gotcha. But, if a user wanted to see reviews, they'd have to leave the cart, find the product page, and come back?

Or you mean I could link to a product page, and when the product is added to the cart the discount is active?

[rnotaro]

It's probably linked to the session's cookie?

[deelly]

Love to see some A/B testing of you approach.

[quadrature]

What do you sell ?.

[benmorris]

Online design products like signs, lettering, and digital graphics.