Thread: Is this a Possible Anonymous Checkout/ Duplicate Email Address work around?

We have a client who wants to allow anonymous checkout, but not the duplicate email address. He doesn't want customers to get the "Already Existing Account" message and be locked out. Also there is limited budget for an implementation.

After much thinking and examining of the source code, I think I may have come up with an approach.

Create a SQL Server Batch job to update the Customer Tables email address with a
bogus address for customers created with anonymous orders.

Declare @CustomerCnt Integer

select @CustomerCnt= count(*) from orders o
inner join Customer c on o.CustomerID=c.CustomerID
where c.IsRegistered=0 and patindex('%bogus123456789.com%',c.email)=0
and isnull(c.FirstName,'')='' and isnull(c.LastName,'')=''

if ISNULL( @CustomerCnt,0)>0
begin
update Customer set Email= convert(varchar(100),c.customerid)+'@bogus12345678 9.com'
from customer c
inner join Orders o on o.CustomerID=c.CustomerID
where c.IsRegistered=0 and patindex('%bogus123456789.com%',c.email)=0
and isnull(c.FirstName,'')='' and isnull(c.LastName,'')=''
end


The batch job could be set to run periodically (say once every 5 minutes). Does anyone know any downsides to this approach? I know during the interval between updates, a shopper can get the "Already Existing Account" message and that the Order->Admin->Change Email function updates the Customer and Order records.

Thanks,

John

Your requirements are conflicting. Anonymous means just that...so we do NOT enforce email identity...so i'm not quite sure how to help yet. I understand the request, but not quite sure what to recommend (yet). E.G. what are you trying to accomplish? (grouping accounts? orders? others? by "anonymous" email address?)

it may be doable yes...but I really need to know more about the site requirements.

will doing this blow up anything? The client want's to allow repeat anonymous users without allowing duplicate emails (and the account confusion it can create). They do not care about searching for anonymous customers in the "Customer" area.

I can't think of that this will 'blow anything up'. You'll have to make sure that you leave the original email address intact on the order record so that email notifications can be sent (shipped, resend receipt, etc) but that won't interfere with customer orders in the future. You're also going to make account/order management more difficult, and I would hate to have to explain to a CC company or auditor that "the customer really did place that order, we just added the random information later" in the event of a chargeback or any other legal action.

Good to know. All order processing, including the Credit Card processing, is going to occur in an ERP backend via web services. The order information in storefront is not going to be modified. From examining the database, the customer record for an anonymous customer is essentially blank which doesn't provide any real information to an auditor.