Ecommerce merchants that require shoppers to register new accounts in order to complete a transaction are annoying the majority of their visitors and may even be losing sales as a result, a new Janrain survey suggests.

Nearly nine in 10 shoppers (86 percent) said they found it bothersome when retailers forced them to create new log-ins for ecommerce websites – a number that has grown 10 percent over the past year. More than half of respondents (54 percent) said they would leave the site and not return if faced with that issue.

Companies hoping to glean more information about their shoppers through these forms may want to think twice – 88 percent said they leave incorrect information when asked to fill out information, up 12 percent over last year.

Retailers should explore other options, such as enabling users to sign in with their Facebook credentials, minimizing the amount of details customers need to input before making a purchase, or not requiring them to create account until after the transaction has been completed.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Thursday, January 12th, 2012 at 2:30 am .