Allow for Guest Purchasing.....

[terry5732]

The last few people I sent to my items on eBid did not want to sign up

Must be something scary about the sign up page

[thecardattic]

Nope, our domain name points here, we don't have one pointing to the other store anymore, its on one of those free storefront sites

[thecardattic]

In this day and age customers want to get in and out, no muss, no password to come up with, no hassles. We are in a very instant gratification world at least in the U.S. right now. Look at sites like Wal mart and Tar get just to name 2, guest checkout is an option, hands down I really think the pulse that I am picking up on from customers is that time management is tougher then ever and they want to buy and buy quickly. Instant pudding, instant potatoes, instant checkout...LOL

[JaBek1]

If buyers weren't required to register for an account they would simply be buyers and not site members. Obviously any type of feedback for them would be meaningless.

Of course, it could work if the checkout was by means of a cart where the item wasn't actually considered sold until checkout was completed by the buyer and the item remained available to other shoppers until checkout was complete. If the checkout isn't completed by the customer the order doesn't go through and everything is like it never happened. It would be like a shopper abandoning their cart before checkout at a B&M store, only without employees having to spend time putting the stuff back on the shelf.

Unfortunately, such a system is not feasible for in auction type setting. In an auction the bidder is committing to purchase the item for the amount of their bid if it is the winning bid at the time they place it. This makes abandoning an item that has been won a breach of contract. Therefor, the shopping cart system of checkout doesn't work well with auctions.

Still, if eBid wanted to do away with auction selling format there would probably be no need for buyers to register. Of course, a FVF, if any, wouldn't actually accrue until checkout since there would be no transaction before then. But it would surely cut out much the non-payment problem. However, sellers willing to accept non-instant forms of payment could still have problems as they would be, in essence, extending credit to the buyer.