Wine Technology Blog @ WineWeb.com

A lot has been said and written about tracking your customers and marketing directly to them.  Great, but are your practices turning away potential customers?  Many websites, across all industries, require a new customer to create an account before placing an order. While that makes it easy for the company to track repeat customers, I believe it can scare potential customers away.  I for one, when considering an online purchase from a new company, tend to place a small order first to try the products.  Then if I'm impressed, I'll go back to their website, sign up for their newsletter, maybe subscribe to their frequent buyer program, and setup an account to make repeat purchases easier. 

Consider your potential new customers when setting up your e-commerce program. Maybe give them an option to create an account after the order checkout process and define the benefits for them of doing that.