Customer Account Features

Users can register for their own customer accounts on the site, and when they do, a few additional features become available to them under the Your Account link in the global header. A summary of the topics is described below:

Registration

Customers can register for an account in the following ways:

• By clicking the Your Account link in the global header.

• During the checkout process on sites configured to "Invite Login Before Checkout" or "Force Login on Orders." (These settings are configurable in the Administrator under Customer Account Settings.)

• Employees may also create Customer accounts under the Ecommerce -> Customers menu option.

The registration form by default simply asks for the customer's username and password, and when submitted, it creates the account immediately:

However, admins may "Require Email Activation for New Customers," a setting that can be enabled on the Login Security Settings screen in the administrator. When that setting is enabled, the registration form initially only asks for the user's email address/username:

When the "Require Email Activation for New Customers" setting is enabled, submitting the username triggers an email to the customer with a link they must click to define their password and finishing activating their account.

The "Require Email Activation for New Customers" option essentially guarantees to the administrators that the customer has access to the email they are registering under, which in some cases is an important security precaution.

Registration and Login During Checkout

During the checkout process, employees have three options for configuring whether the customer must create an account and log in:

• Require the user to log in: Enable the "Force Login on Orders" setting under the Customer Account Settings screen.

• Invite, but do not require, the user to create an account and log in: Enable the "Invite Login Before Checkout" setting but disable the "Force Login on Orders" setting under the Customer Account Settings screen.

• Do not offer the option to log in or create an account during checkout: Disable both the "Invite Login Before Checkout" setting and the "Force Login on Orders" setting under the Customer Account Settings screen.

The second option is the default: users are invited to login in or create an account, but not required to. On the first step of the checkout process, they have the option to "Continue Without an Account":

The "Continue Without an Account" option does NOT appear if the "Force Login on Orders" setting is enabled - customers will be required to create an account and login before passing this step of the checkout process.

Registration and Login with Google Sign-In

The platform can support customer accounts that are authenticated through the user's Google account. This can make it much more convenient for users since they do not need to create a new password. When this feature is enabled and functioning, customers will see an additional option to "Sign In With Google" on the login and registration pages:

Signing in with Google works even if you do not have an existing account - the system will create a new account for you under your Google email address and use that account on subsequent visits.

If a customer has already created an account using the regular "New Customers" form, they won't be able to use Sign In With Google. Similarly, if a customer creates their account through Google, they won't be able to log in using the internal log-in form - they have to continue to sign in using Google. If the customer clicks Reset Your Password, they'll receive an email explaining they have to sign in via Google and should maintain their account through them.

Enabling Google sign-in for customers requires some work on the administrator's part. A validated web application must be created within Google for the domain name used by your site. For this reason, this feature is off by default. To get started, visit the Sign In With Google for Web guide here: https://developers.google.com/identity/gsi/web/guides/overview.

Once you have created a Google web application for the domain name for your site, visit the Login Security Settings screen, and enable Google Sign-In by entering your application's "Client ID":

Address Book

Each customer who has registered has the ability to create multiple delivery and billing addresses in their account, which they can then choose from when placing orders. It's a convenience for the user, allowing them to keep track of addresses they commonly use without have to re-key them each time. The Addresses tab under the account area provides all the functions to add, edit, and remove both delivery and billing addresses:

During checkout, the customer will see the same addresses with an option to choose which one they would like to use for the current order. They can also edit and delete addresses from the checkout screen. If they enter a new address, or are going through checkout for the first time, the address will automatically get added to their address book and it will appear the next time they place an order under their account.

Order History

Under the Order History tab, customers can view details of each of the orders they've placed under their account:

Clicking into the details of each order shows a full copy of the receipt they were shown at the end of the checkout process:

Note that the order's status and other information might have been updated by an employee: notes might have been added or items might even have been added or removed. When the customer accesses the order via their account, it is showing them the current status of their order.

Employees can retrieve a copy of the receipt of each order at the time it was placed. To do this, find the original Order Confirmation email that was sent for the order in the administrator. (Either using the "Email Messages" option under the order's three-dots menu, or the Notifications tab under the Customer Service screen for the order.)

Wish Lists

Another feature that comes with a registered customer account is the ability to create Wish Lists. Wish Lists are simply lists of products the customer has decided they want; they can share these lists with their friends and family, or refer back to themselves. For example, if a customer has a birthday coming up and wants to send their family ideas for gifts, they can create a Wish List and share its link with whomever they like. Following the link shows the family members the list of products, with the ability to add them to a cart and order them. The people the wish lists are shared with do not necessarily have to create an account themselves to buy the items (unless the store's "Force Login on Orders" setting is enabled).

A Wish List is automatically created the first time a customer clicks the "Add to Wish List" button on a product page:

Note: If the user clicks "Add to Wish List" but does not have an account, or is not logged in, they are prompted to login or create a new account.

When the customer is ready to share the wish list, they can find the link to the public-facing wish list page under the Details of the wish list:

By default the first Wish List is simply named "My Wish List" but the customer may edit the name and provide a description of the list, which their fiends will see when they visit the wish list. In addition, from this same screen, they can remove items from the wish list.

Here is a view of the public wish list page, which the customer is invited to share with friends. Very simply, the visitors see the list of products with links to view details and/or add items to their cart.

Back on the main Wish Lists screen in the customer account area, each customer can view all the wish lists they have and create additional wish lists under their account.

If a customer creates more than one wish list, back on the product page, they can select which one to add each product to.

This is a convenient way to avoid having friends buy the same item for � the customer can create separate wish lists for each person.

Note: The Wish List feature as a whole can be enabled and disabled by an employee from the Customer Account Settings screen in the administrator.