No. Let people buy without an account, and let the account create itself from the order email address, once all the information is already entered. Making someone invent a password between cart and payment is an obstacle that only serves you.
The benchmark
Look at the exit rate at the login or sign-up step, if you have one. Also look at the number of forgotten-password requests: each one is a person who wanted to buy and had to stop.
According to the Baymard Institute, 18% of people who abandon at checkout cite a required account, and 42% of sites still ask for one before the order.
At a premium footwear brand, one checkout in five was completed by new visitors, versus more than two in five by returning customers. The account is for the next order, with address and card already on file.
The rule
The first order asks only for what's needed to ship and get paid. The account comes after, in one tap, or creates itself from the email address.
On Shopify, this is now the default: the new Shopify "customer accounts" have no password. People sign in with a six-digit code sent by email, and the old password-based system has no longer been available to new stores since February 2026.
An agency director, in a workshop with a bedding brand, summed it up:
"An account is created as soon as an order is placed. You just give your email address, no password. The user isn't stopped in the journey.
The steps
- Buying without an account. Check that "Require customers to sign in before checkout" is turned off in your checkout settings. When it's on, it also hides express payments.
- The account afterward. Let the confirmation page offer order tracking, and the account with it.
- The code. Choose sign-in with a code sent by email over a password. It's the default setting.
- The reasons. Reserve the account for what really helps: tracking, returns, withdrawal rights, reordering. An e-commerce manager put it this way: "The point of creating the account is the relationship after the order. More than the marketing data."
- The announcement. Tell your existing customers before you change the door.
A line to give your leadership, in your own words:
"Nobody creates an account before paying. The account creates itself with the order, and we warn people who already have an account before we change the lock."
The trap
Thinking the account gives you the data is the first trap. You already have the email and address with the order. A mandatory account mostly produces duplicates, forgotten passwords and customer service requests.
The newer trap is subtler: passwordless sign-in removes a step for new visitors but adds one for loyal customers if nobody warns them. The founder of a perfume house lived it after his migration: "I'm a current customer, I've always had my password.
All of a sudden I don't have one anymore. If nobody tells me, I don't understand." His marketing director added:
"You get this code, you have to go dig through your emails, honestly it's not great."
We had migrated without writing it down anywhere. If you want your customers to have an account, give them a reason to come back to it, and tell them how to get in.
