Lightspeed eCom automatically creates customer accounts after shoppers place their first online order. Each account is linked to a unique email. Your clients can then log in to their accounts at any time through a one-time access code or sign-in link sent to their inbox. 

Customers can place online orders as guests without logging in to their account, however, logging in to an account allows them to access their favorite products, see order history (both in-store and online), get access to their special member discounts and loyalty points, and view invoices.

When are customer accounts created?

Generally, customer accounts are created in your eCom store after an online 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 online store, their account is created only after the order is placed.
• If your company address is German, eCom 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.

After an account is created, customers can sign in to see their order history with you (both in-store and online), favorites, loyalty points, etc.

Enabling and turning off customer account creation

You can turn on and off the “My Account” link in your online 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 control the My Account sign-in link visibility in your storefront:

1. From your POS, go to Online.
2. Switch to the Webstore tab and click Edit Site.
3. In the Page dropdown at the top, select Catalog > Categories & Product Grid > Catalog page settings.
4. Switch the toggle next to Show "Sign In" link.
5. Publish the changes.

If you're not using the Lightspeed eCom sitebuilder (Instant Site), go to Online > Webstore > Design, scroll down, and switch the toggle next to "Sign in" link. If you've added your online store to a 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 email that your customers receive, you can edit the template of this customer notification.

Signing in to customer accounts

To create an account in your online store, your site visitor can click the My Account link at the bottom of catalog pages on your site to register or log in to their account.

If your company address is German, customers can also register at checkout via the special "Join us" section on the Thank you for your order page.

To log into a customer account as a customer:

1. On your site, open any product's page or a category page and scroll down to the bottom.
2. Click the My Account link.

3. Enter the email address for your account, then click Continue:

   

4. Open your inbox and find the access code email, then submit the one-time code on the account page. The code is valid for 15 minutes. Once you enter the code, you will be logged into your customer account.

   Optionally, you can click a personal sign-in link in the email. This link can be used only once and only if you haven’t already used the access code, and is 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, 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.

Viewing favorite products or customer wishlists

Your customers can add products from your online store to their favorites, making it easy for them to find items they want to buy. 

Customers can view their wishlist from their account by clicking on View favorites. All of the products marked as a favorite will be shown on the page.

Learn more about Favorites →

Requiring customers to log in to customer accounts

You can make shoppers 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 from the Lightspeed eCom App Market.

To install the app:

1. From your POS, go to Online, scroll down, and click Go to eCom.
2. In your eCom admin, go to Apps > App Market and find the Required Login for Storefront Access app.
3. Click Install.
4. Follow further instructions.

After you install and enable the app, your customers will be prompted to sign in to see and buy your products.

If you want to show certain store elements only to logged-in customers who belong to a certain customer group, you need to modify your store CSS theme. For this, contact support.

Customer accounts FAQ

• If it is critical that your customers should log into your online store using passwords instead of login by a one-time code or link, you can contact our support team, and they will check if this legacy login option can be enabled in your online 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 in your eCom admin on the 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 logging in than using a login/password. Since the access code and login link are sent to the email address, only the owner of the email address is able to log into the account.
• Yes, you can create new profiles by importing customer accounts with eCom (Ecwid) import or by clicking Add New Customer on the My Sales > Customers page in the eCom admin panel.
• Yes, you can. By default, the My Account, Track Orders, and other links are located at the bottom of every page on your online storefront. You can move the bottom navigation menu to the top of your storefront. For this, contact support to ask them to modify your store's CSS theme.