Ecommerce Tip: Social Logins For A Better Customer Experience
According to a recent survey by Janrain, a majority of customers (perhaps as many as 50-80%) prefer to use an existing social media account for log-in/registration on e-commerce sites. The most popular of which has been Facebook Connect which accounts for 55% of all social logins.
Providing social login options to customers simplifies the registration process. Ease of registration/sign-in should lead to greater customer engagement. It’s also one less set of credentials for the customer and merchant to manage.
ShopSite Integration
Merchants running ShopSite Pro (v11 or higher) can seamlessly integrate with Facebook Connect, allowing new and returning customers the ability to register/sign-in using their existing Facebook account. Enabling this feature greatly simplifies the registration process and makes signing in a breeze.
When a customer elects to Register via Facebook, all “shareable” data is passed to the ShopSite Customer Registration module and saved in the same way as a traditional registration.
1. Log into Facebook (https://developers.facebook.com/apps) and follow the instructions provided by ShopSite to create a new Facebook App:
v11: http://www.shopsite.com/help/11.2/en-US/sc/pro/facebook.connect.html
v12: http://www.shopsite.com/help/12.0/en-US/sc/pro/facebook.connect.html
Hint: In order to follow the above instructions, it is necessary to exit from the Facebook “Quick Start” mode (starts by default)
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2. Under Commerce > Customer Registration > Configure, paste the App ID, App Secret and Site URL (from above Facebook App settings)
Facebook Connect
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3. To verify Facebook login is now enabled and working, navigate to your ShopSite Registration or Sign-In page. You should see the Facebook login button.
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If your current Customer Registration template does not include support for Facebook Connect, the following additions will be necessary. To identify the template currently in use by Customer Registration, go to Commerce > Customer Registration > Configure. The field to look for is Registration Template.
Merchandising > Custom Templates > Advanced (Customer Registration)
1. Add the following to the desired location within the [– DEFINE New_Registration –] section of the template:
[– IF CR_FACEBOOK_CONNECT –][– CR_FACEBOOK_CONNECT –]<span id=”cr-or”>[– Store.Email_SignUp_Or –]</span>[– END_IF –]
2. Add the following to the desired location within the [– DEFINE Sign_In –] section of the template:
[– IF CR_FACEBOOK_CONNECT –][– CR_FACEBOOK_CONNECT –]<span id=”cr-or”>[– Store.Email_SignUp_Or –]</span>[– END_IF –]
3. At the end of the customer registration template, add the following section:
### E-mail for Forgotten Password if Address is a Facebook Login Customer ###
[– DEFINE Forgot_Password_Facebook_Email –]
DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd”>
<html>
<body>
<p>[– STORE.RegisteredFacebookEmail –]</p>
<p>[– CR_FORGOT_PASSWORD_LINK –]</p>
<p><b>[– STORE.Name –]</b></p>
</body>
</html>
[– END_DEFINE Forgot_Password_Facebook_Email –]
To match the layout/style of your current registration template, it may be necessary to add HTML/CSS.
Magento Integration
Merchants running Magento Community Edition can install one of several popular extensions available via Magento Connect. Most will also include support for Twitter, Google+, Linked In and other social media platforms.
Below are a few of the more popular extensions compatible with the latest CE version (1.9):
Social Login by LitExtension
http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/social-login-by-litextension.html
The LitExtension includes a tutorial for setting up API credentials with some of the most popular social media sites.
GoMage Social Connector
http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/gomage-social-connector.html
AddShoppers: Social Marketing Apps for eCommerce
http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/addshoppers-social-marketing-apps-for-ecommerce.html
Note: An account on Magento Connect (free) is required in order to download/install extensions.
First-time Magento Connect users will want to read this short installation guide:
http://info.magento.com/rs/magentocommerce/images/InstallingMagentoConnectExtensions4%200.pdf
After installing an extension you may need to copy the files to your custom theme and skin folders.
Complexity of integration with Magento will vary by extension. Some minor template modifications may be necessary to achieve the desired look and feel.
