Customer accounts
After a customer places an order in your store, Ecwid automatically creates an account for customer's email address. Your customers can then log into their accounts at any time through their personal Sign-In link sent to their inbox.
Customers can also place orders as guests in your store (without logging into their account), however logging into an account allows your customers to access their favorite products, see order history, get access to their special member discounts, and view invoices.
When are accounts created?
Generally, customer accounts are created in your online store after an order is placed. However, the exact moment during checkout may vary based on your store settings, location, or payment methods used.
- If you’ve added the sign-up checkbox to checkout, customer accounts are created at the beginning of the checkout process, right after a customer enters their email address and clicks Checkout.
- If a customer uses PayPal Checkout in your store, their account is created only after the order is placed.
- If your company address is German, Ecwid does not automatically create customer accounts. Your customers can create accounts themselves if they want or register at checkout via the special "Join us" section on the Thank you for your order page.
- If you're using the legacy login with password option, customer accounts are not created automatically upon order placement. Your customers create accounts themselves.
After an account is created, customers can sign in to see their order history, favorites, etc.
Enabling/Disabling account creation
You can enable/disable the “My Account” link in the storefront. If enabled, customers can find the sign in option in the bottom navigation menu under your catalog, so they can register or log in to their account:
To enable/disable the My Account sign-in link in your storefront:
- From your Ecwid admin, go to Design.
- Scroll down to Storefront additional settings.
- Switch the toggle next to "Sign in" link to select Shown or Hidden.
If you've added your Ecwid store to Wix or Wordpress site, you should change store design settings in your Wix or Wordpress admin.
To remove the link to the Sign In page from the Order Confirmation that your customers receive, you can edit the template of this customer notification.
Signing in to Customer Accounts
If your customer wants to create an account in your store, there is typically a list of links at the bottom of every page on your storefront, including the My Account link where your customers can register or log in to their account.
To log into a Customer account (as a customer):
- On the storefront, scroll down your catalog and click the My Account link.
- Enter the email address for your account, then click Get Sign-In Link:
- Open your email inbox, then click a personal sign-in link in the email. This link can be used only once and is only valid for 14 days. Once clicked, you will be taken back to the store website as a logged-in customer.
When your signed-in customers access their My Account page, they see a dashboard of their account, with an overview of recently placed orders and their account data. From here, your customers can view their shopping cart and wish list, get access to their special member discounts, write reviews (if you have turned them on in your store), and view or download invoices from the More Actions menu:
Your customers stay signed in until they click the Sign Out link in their customer account or start using another browser or device to shop in your store.
Changing My Account link location
By default, you can find My Account, Track Orders and other icons at the bottom of every page on your storefront. You can move the bottom navigation menu to the top of your storefront if you wish. This requires modifying your store CSS theme.
To move bottom navigation menu icons to the top of your storefront:
- From your Ecwid admin, go to Design.
- Scroll down to the "Themes and in-depth customization" block and click Create Theme (or Edit Theme).
- Paste this CSS code to the appeared window.
- Save the changes.
Learn more about adding CSS codes to your store →
If you’ve added your Ecwid store to your own existing site, you may want to add My Account link or Sign Up/In button in your website header or navigation.
To create a custom My Account link:
- Form a URL for your store's Sign In page. It should point to:
http://PATH-TO-STORE/account/settings
If you create a site on Squarespace, use the http://PATH-TO-STORE/#!/~/account/settings link instead.
Replace PATH-TO-STORE with the real domain of your website page where you've added your Ecwid store.
Here is an example of the resulting URL:
https://www.example.com/demo/account/settings
https://www.ecwid.com/demo/account/settings
- Add a custom link to the desired place on your website. For example, add this link to a menu item or to a button in the header of your site.
If you are not sure how to add a custom link onto your website, follow your sitebuilder's instructions on how and where you can add it.
Viewing favorite products (Wishlists)
Your customers can add items from your online store to their favorites, making it easy for them to keep track of all the products they desire. Customers can view their wish list from their account at any time by clicking on View favorites. All of the products marked as a favorite will be shown on the page.
Requiring customers to log in
You can make your customers create an account, or have an account and be logged in to access your catalog. For example, this setting is useful if you're running a wholesale or members-only store.
To give access to your store catalog only to logged-in customers, you need to use the free app Required Login for Storefront Access.
To install the app:
- From your Ecwid admin, go to App Market.
- Find Required Login for Storefront Access app, then click Install.
- Follow further instructions.
After you install and enable the app, your customers will be prompted to sign in to see and buy your products.
FAQ
How can my customers log in with passwords?
If it is critical that your customers should log into your store using passwords instead of login by link, you can contact our support team and they will check if this legacy login option can be enabled in your store.
Note that the login by link comes with a number of advantages (which are not available for the login with password):
- Customers don’t need to remember passwords.
- After an order is placed, the customer's account is created automatically for the email address used.
If you're using login with password, customer accounts are not created automatically upon order placement. - You can see all the customers who placed orders in your store. To see them in your Ecwid admin, go to My sales → Customers page.
- A customer can see all the orders placed with their email address in their account.
- This is a more secure way of login than using a login/password. Since the login link is sent to the email address, only the owner of the email address is able to log into the account.
Can I create new customer accounts in my store?
Yes, you can create new profiles by importing customer accounts with the help of the app from the Ecwid app market.