Starting December 2016, we began enabling User Accounts Integration on several stores. This was one of the most requested features as well as the most challenging one. Since, the USP of our app is a Wishlist that works without User Accounts, this was exact opposite to what we had offered and advertised so far. The biggest challenge before us was to ensure that the Account-less Wishlist remained unaffected while enabling User Accounts. Therefore, we decided to keep the User Accounts purely optional for Users as well as Merchants. This ensured the right type of flexibility we had initially thought of.
At this stage, we have introduced 2 new terms.
Express Wishlist: This wishlist doesn’t require any User registration or Login. This is the legacy wishlist created by the app so far.
User Account Wishlist: This is the Wishlist associated with the User Accounts
Now, let’s present a highlight of important features of User Accounts Integration.
Users
1. Users can create wishlists without registration or login. They can even share the wishlist as before. Nothing has changed for the User, who doesn’t want to sign-up or sign-in.
2. On My Wishlist Page, Users get a message to login and save the Wishlist to their User Accounts. This is optional and is not enforced by any means.
3. If the user chooses to login, a new Wishlist (User Account Wishlist) is created and all the existing items in the existing Wishlist gets synced to the newly created User Account Wishlist. At this point, the user has 2 wishlists, one linked to his account (User Account Wishlist) and the other without user account (Express Wishlist).
4. Adding Items: After logging in, if user adds more items to his Wishlist, these are saved to his User Account Wishlist only. The Express Wishlist remains untouched at this stage.
5. Removing Items: After logging in, if the User deletes some items from his Wishlist, these are removed from both User Account Wishlist and Express Wishlist. This is in contrast to #4, but has to be enforced for ensuring consistency across wishlists.
6. Multiple Devices: If the user logs in from some other device or browser, there can be two scenarios:
6.1. If the new device /browser doesn’t have any Express Wishlist already present on it, the User can directly access his User Account Wishlist. He can read/edit the items in his User Account Wishlist, which even though was created from a different device/browser.
6.2. If the new device /browser already has another Express Wishlist (from your store) present on it, the items of this Express Wishlist would also get added to User Account Wishlist after login. Any duplicate entries are of course filtered out.
7. Simultaneous Login: If the User logs in to his Account simultaneously from several different devices or browsers, there can be two scenarios as explained below. We have used an example of 2 devices here, but the same holds true for any number of devices/browsers.
7. 1. If the User is logged in to the Wishlist simultaneously from 2 different devices/browsers and adds items to the Wishlist, these are added to the same User Account Wishlist. Of course, any duplicate entries are of course filtered out. The Express Wishlists on the two devices remain untouched.
7. 2. If the User is logged in to the Wishlist simultaneously from 2 different devices/browsers and removes few distinct items from the Wishlist, these are removes from the User Account Wishlist and is reflected at both the devices. If the item to be removed is also present in the Express Wishlist of the browser (from which the delete request is made), the item is dropped from Express Wishlist also. The Express Wishlist of the other browser, however remains untouched.
Practical Examples
Below are few practical scenarios in order to assist you in understanding the functionality.
If you add items A,B,C to your Express Wishlist and login to Account P, then all of them A,B,C shall get synced to User Account Wishlist P. Now,if you add items D,E,F to Wishlist while logged in to Account P, the User Account wishlist P shall contain items A,B,C,D,E,F. If you log out, your Express Wishlist shall only contain items A,B,C.
Then if you log in to another Account Q on the same browser, then again all items present in Express Wishlist (A,B,C ) shall get synced to User Account Wishlist Q. Now if you add items G,H,Y to the Wishlist while logged in to Q, the User Account Wishlist Q shall contain items A,B,C,G,H,Y. Then if you log out, your Express Wishlist shall still contain only items A,B,C.
If you remove item A while logged in to account Q, the same shall be removed from both User Account Wishlist Q and Express Wishlist of that browser. The User Account Wishlist P shall remain unaffected.
If you remove all items from the User Wishlist of Q, then it would remove those items from the Express wishlist of that browser too (if present). Any other User Account Wishlist (for e.g. P) shall remain unaffected.
Merchants
Merchants can operate the app in two different modes, Express mode and Dual mode.
1. Express Wishlist mode: Under this mode, the Wishlist would continue to operate like before the era of User Account Integration. Users can create/remove/share wishlists like earlier. Nothing changes in this mode.
2. Dual Mode: Under this mode, the User can create/remove/share wishlist without logging in. However, they will see an option to login in order to save their wishlist to their user accounts. Logging in would be purely optional and can not not be enforced.
Merchants have the option to select the mode of wishlist operation. This can be changed anytime. To change the mode, please visit the following location in your Shopify Admin.
Apps => Smart Wishlist => User Accounts
Merchants can customize the look and feel of notification displayed on My Wishlist page, which asks user to login. The relevant settings can be accessed at:
Apps => Smart Wishlist => Configure Appearance => Wishlist Page
In the above article, we have explained the various possible scenarios about the User Account Integration. If you have any further questions on this, you can contact us or post them in the comments below.