What benefit is there to requiring sign-in before browsing?

Question

I was just trying to show a student something on aliexpress.com (that I thought would be useful for his project), and the website wouldn't let me browse product categories or search without logging in first.I suppose LinkedIn does this, as have several other sites that I've noticed.Why do sites choose this user-hostile approach?In the case of the student that I was trying to show a part to, I just looked the item up on Amazon instead and Aliexpress lost a sale.Go figure?

elmerfud · Accepted Answer

Tracking and marketing to select partners. It's easier to know who you are if you're logged in.

notlukesky · Answer

I have to agree. There is more sales loss to me than user gains. Of course I don&rsquo;t have the numbers of these companies at scale. Presumably they did the math and gain more conversions than losses to continue doing this.

hitpointdrew · Answer

Same bullshit with "Call for pricing".How about no. How about you be transparent and list the pricing on your page.

mtmail · Answer

It could be a counter-measure to not get crawled by price comparison engines.

What benefit is there to requiring sign-in before browsing?

Tracking and marketing to select partners. It's easier to know who you are if you're logged in.

I have to agree. There is more sales loss to me than user gains. Of course I don’t have the numbers of these companies at scale. Presumably they did the math and gain more conversions than losses to continue doing this.

Same bullshit with "Call for pricing".
How about no. How about you be transparent and list the pricing on your page.

It could be a counter-measure to not get crawled by price comparison engines.