Do you want to set up a seamless WooCommerce customer login experience on the checkout page?

For any online store, ensuring a smooth checkout process for new and returning customers is crucial.

One of the best ways to do this is by setting up a robust customer login system.

This system should prompt returning customers with an active account on your store to log in with a popup modal login form. This way, customers can log in on the fly without leaving the checkout page.

It should also have a password reset option in case users forget their passwords and redirect them to the checkout page after successfully resetting their passwords.

In this article, you’ll learn everything you need to know about WooCommerce customer logins and how to enhance this experience on the checkout page.

Check out our quick tutorial to implement the smart login feature:

What is WooCommerce Customer Login on the Checkout Page?

The WooCommerce customer login feature on the checkout page allows customers to log in to their existing accounts or create new accounts directly.

This feature streamlines the purchasing process by reducing the steps a customer needs to take to complete their order.

Here’s how an ideal WooCommerce customer login should work:

• Login prompt - The checkout page prompts customers to log in if they have an existing account. This can be a simple link or a call to action button.
  
• Password reset - It allows users to regain access to their accounts if they forget their passwords. After successfully resetting their passwords, they get redirected to the checkout page to complete their orders.
  
• Registration option - If a user does not have an account, this functionality allows them to register for a new account during checkout.
  
• Pre-filled account information - Once customers log in, the checkout page automatically fills in the saved information, making the buying process quicker and more efficient.

Comparison of Guest Checkout vs. Customer Login

When setting up an online store with WooCommerce, one of the key decisions involves choosing between guest checkout and customer login.

Both options have their own advantages and disadvantages that impact customer experience, sales, and business operations.

Let’s look at a detailed comparison:

Guest Checkout

Pros

• Reduces friction and speeds up buying - Guest checkout simplifies the purchasing process, enabling customers to purchase without creating their accounts.
  
• Get more first-time orders - It’s convenient for first-time buyers who are not committed to your brand.

• Reduces abandoned carts - It can reduce cart abandonment rates by offering a quicker, hassle-free purchase option.

Cons

• Difficulty tracking orders and managing accounts - Customers who check out as guests may have difficulty tracking their orders or managing returns.
  
• Reduces customer loyalty - Guest checkout doesn’t encourage repeat purchases because customers don’t have accounts to return for future orders.

• Limited customer data - You may miss out on collecting valuable customer data that can be used for personalization and marketing purposes.

WooCommerce Customer Login

Pros

• Customer retention - Having customers create an account encourages repeat business, allowing them to save their details, view order history, and receive personalized communications.
  
• Enhanced customer experience - Logged-in customers benefit from a streamlined shopping experience with saved addresses, payment methods, and order history.
  
• Effective data collection - Accounts enable you to gather detailed information about your customers, which is used for targeted marketing, personalized promotions, and improved customer service.
  
• Loyalty programs - You can implement loyalty programs, reward points, and other incentives to customers for encouraging repeat purchases.

Cons

• Login difficulties - Customers may forget their login credentials, leading to frustration. Even if you provide a password reset option, they may be redirected to another screen and never return to the checkout page.

Making customers log in has many advantages. We have also listed how you can enhance this process, allowing you to tailor your WooCommerce store to maximize customer satisfaction and business success.

Different Types of WooCommerce Customer Login Methods

There are six types of customer login for WooCommerce:

• Open WooCommerce stores with guest checkout

This is quite common and is primarily popular with customers because it allows faster purchases. 

However, it cannot gather customer’s personal information that can be used for marketing purposes.

To set this up, you need to enable the guest checkout option in your WooCommerce accounts and privacy settings.

• Open WooCommerce stores with customer accounts

An open store with mandatory accounts requires customers to log in to complete a purchase.

You can analyze their history, offer product recommendations, and introduce loyalty programs.

To set this up, enable the ‘Allow customers to log into an existing account during checkout’ option in the WooCommerce accounts and privacy settings.

• Open WooCommerce stores with limited access

This type of WooCommerce customer login is common in stores based on memberships. It lets users access the store by becoming a member.

It allows an effective way to categorize products, provide exclusive discounts to members, offer subscriptions for products and services, or create multi-tiered pricing.

• Private WooCommerce stores with mandatory login

These stores are only open to members who join by invitation or purchase a subscription.

They offer a high level of exclusivity, giving access to products or content not available to the general public.

• Auto-login links for WooCommerce store access

Auto-login links are quite useful for avoiding the delay of requiring user accounts. 

When customers sign up, you can send them a personalized auto-login link to log in to your store automatically.

This way, you can enjoy the advantages of having user accounts without the hassle of constantly logging in.

Troubleshooting the Default WooCommerce Customer Login Issues

Here’s how the default WooCommerce checkout functions.

It doesn’t tell you whether you’re an existing customer right when you enter your email address.

It prompts when you click on the buy now button on your checkout page, trying to make the payment to place your order.

This can be quite frustrating.

So now you click on the login button, which offers an inline customer login form like this:

Here, you can log in to your account. If you don’t remember your password, click the ‘Lost your password?’ link on the WooCommerce login page.

It takes you to a separate page away from the checkout to reset your password. Enter your email address to send the password reset link.

Once you click on the reset link in your email, you’ll be redirected to reset your password:

After you reset your password, you log in, and it takes you to the My Account page.

The default process completely disrupts the checkout flow because your cart or checkout page is nowhere in sight.

This way, the buying momentum breaks, and the customer may abandon the cart without completing the checkout process.

Ideal WooCommerce customer login solutions

• Check if a user has an existing account when they enter their email address on the checkout page.
  
• Customers should not leave the checkout page when they hit the forget password button.
  
• Once users successfully reset the password, they get redirected to the checkout page to complete their purchase.

In the later sections of this post, you’ll learn how to implement these solutions and enhance your WooCommerce customer login experience.

How to Enhance WooCommerce Customer Login Experience on Checkout?

Here, we’ll use the FunnelKit Funnel Builder to enhance the customer login experience in the WooCommerce store.

FunnelKit Funnel Builder is the highest-rated sales funnel builder plugin used by 20,000+ WooCommerce stores.

You can set up beautiful, high-converting custom checkout pages, landing pages, opt-ins, order bumps, one-click upsells, and thank you pages.

It has pre-designed funnel templates that you can easily import and customize the way you want.

Click on the button to get your copy of the FunnelKit Funnel Builder.

Make sure you’ve installed and activated the plugin on your WordPress website.

Step 1: Enable the WooCommerce login option from settings

First, you need to enable the customers to log in to existing accounts during checkout. To do this, navigate to WooCommerce ⇨ Settings ⇨ Accounts & Privacy.

Check the ‘Allow customers to log into an existing account during checkout’ option.

Hit the ‘Save changes’ button when done.

Step 2: Create store checkout

Use FunnelKit’s store checkout to replace the default WooCommerce checkout page.

We have dedicated posts on how to set up high-converting store checkout in your WooCommerce store:

• Set up global or store checkout in WooCommerce
• Offer order bumps on the checkout page
• Add upsells in your buying process

Once that’s done, move on to the next step.

Step 3: Navigate to checkout optimization options

Navigate to the FunnelKit ⇨ Store Checkout and hit the checkout page step.

Go to the Optimizations section.

Step 4: Choose the customer login form style

Look for the “Smart Login” option here. After entering their email address, this option checks whether the user is an existing customer.

You get two options under the ‘Smart Login’ feature:

• Overlay - The overlay option shows a popup window where customers can log in to their accounts.
  
• Inline - The inline option expands to the login form, exhibiting a similar behavior to the default login.

We will choose ‘Overlay’ here.

Move on to the next section.

Step 5: Nudge returning users to log in

Enable the option to prompt returning users to log in and configure the login message that is displayed to customers.

Click on ‘Save’ when done.

Make sure to activate the store or global checkout.

That’s it! This is how you can enhance your WooCommerce customer login experience on the checkout page.

👉 Learn more about WooCommerce checkout optimizations to streamline the buying process in your store.

Testing the WooCommerce Login as Customer

Let’s test our checkout process. 

WooCommerce login as a customer

Add items to the shopping cart and proceed to the checkout page.

Enter your email address and it’ll show you’re an existing customer.

You can easily log in to your account with the login button by entering your credentials.

With overlay style, you get a WooCommerce custom login popup form to enter your login information.

Password reset

If you forget your password, hit the ‘Lost your password?’ button.

This will prompt you to enter your username or email address so the reset password link can be sent right from this window. It won’t redirect you to a separate page.

FunnelKit guides you through checking your email with the recovery link to reset your password.

After you’ve successfully reset your password, log in to the account.

It’ll redirect you to the checkout page with the pre-filled information:

This allows you to continue the checkout process and place the order.

4 Tips to Follow to Enhance the WooCommerce Customer Login Experience

Follow these four tips that will help you enhance the customer login experience in your WooCommerce store:

1. Streamline the login process

Keep the login form simple and clutter-free. It should ask only for essential information such as email address and password.

It should check whether the entered email address on the checkout page is already registered and ask the user to log in.

Even if a customer doesn’t remember their password, the process should redirect them to the checkout page after they successfully retrieve the password and log in to their accounts.

If you follow this article, you’ll be able to successfully streamline the customer login process for your WooCommerce store.

2. Implement security measures

Securing the customer login or the whole checkout page helps protect user data and maintain the integrity of your WooCommerce store.

You can implement the following security parameters:

• Two-factor authentication (2FA) - Use different plugins to add an extra layer of security. This requires users to authenticate via a code sent to their mobile device or email in addition to their password.
  
• CAPTCHA - Implement a CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) on the checkout page to verify a human is placing an order. 
  
• Strong password policies - Create strong passwords that include a mix of letters, numbers, and special characters. Encourage users to change their passwords periodically.

Many security plugins like Wordfence offer malware scanning, firewall protection, and real-time monitoring.

3. Responsive design

Ensure the login form on the checkout page is fully responsive and works seamlessly on all devices, including tablets and mobile devices.

You don’t have to worry about responsive design because FunnelKit templates are optimized for different devices.

Make sure the login button, forget password link and form fields are prominently visible for easy tapping on mobile devices.

You can even optimize images and assets to ensure quick load times of all pages in your WooCommerce store.

4. Integrating WooCommerce customer login with CRM and email marketing

Customer relationship management (CRM) systems help you manage and interact with your customers.

Use plugins like FunnelKit Automations to get a detailed view of your customers’ profiles. This allows you to access their purchases, the automations they enter, emails or SMS sent, and more.

You can use this powerful CRM to notify customers about account creations and customer logins based on their activities.

In addition, FunnelKit Automations allows you to send automated email campaigns based on customer behavior, such as abandoned cart emails, post-purchase emails, and many more.

Feel free to join our Facebook group or subscribe to our YouTube channel for more tips and strategies to grow your business.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on WooCommerce Customer Login

Find answers to some common questions related to customer registration and login process for WooCommerce.

1. How do I add a customer login in WooCommerce?

To add the customer login process in WooCommerce on the checkout page, navigate to WooCommerce accounts & privacy settings and enable the ‘Allow customers to log into an existing account during checkout’ option.

When an existing customer goes on to checkout, it’ll ask them to log in to their account and then complete the order.

2. Does WooCommerce have customer accounts?

Yes, WooCommerce has customer accounts. It’s a powerful eCommerce plugin with built-in functionality for managing customer accounts.

3. How do I show a customer’s name when they login to WooCommerce?

There are two ways to show a customer’s name when they login to WooCommerce.

You can add a line of code: if( $current_user = wp_get_current_user() ) echo $current_user->display_name;

Or you can set up a custom WooCommerce checkout page with a personalized merge tag of their names using the FunnelKit Funnel Builder.

4. How do I create a customer account in WooCommerce?

You can create a customer account in WooCommerce by forcing first-time users to register during checkout.

Navigate to WooCommerce accounts & privacy settings and enable the account creation options for your customers.

5. How do I customize my WooCommerce login?

You can customize your WooCommerce login using the FunnelKit Funnel Builder. Go to checkout optimizations and configure the smart login options.

From there, choose the login form style and enable the prompt existing customer options.

We have provided a detailed explanation of these options in the above sections of this article.

6. How to force WooCommerce customers to login or register before they buy?

You can force WooCommerce customers to log in or register before they buy from your store by disabling the guest checkout option. In addition, you can enable login and account creation from the WooCommerce accounts & privacy settings.

7. What is the difference between a WooCommerce customer and a WordPress user?

A WooCommerce customer is a specific type of WordPress user who has interacted with the WooCommerce store, typically by making a purchase.

On the other hand, a WordPress user is anyone who has an account on a WordPress website. Each user has different roles: administrator, editor, author, contributor, subscriber, etc.

8. What is the default WooCommerce login URL?

The default WooCommerce login URL is typically in the format: https://yoursite.com/my-account.

Are You Ready to Enhance the WooCommerce Customer Login Experience on Checkout?

Setting up a WooCommerce customer login system is essential for enhancing customer experience, improving security, and streamlining order management. 

With FunnelKit Funnel Builder, you can optimize the default login process in WooCommerce.

Enabling its smart login feature allows you to nudge an existing customer to check whether they have an account as soon as they enter their email address.

Also, it streamlines the forget password process by redirecting customers to the checkout page where they left off to reset their passwords.

By following the steps outlined in this article, you can create a robust login system that meets your business needs and delights your customers.

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