Understanding User Sign Ups Versus Enrollments

You might have received a notification that a new user was created in your account, but noticed they did not make a purchase. This is likely because they created a user profile on your site, but did not enroll in a course. This article covers the difference between a sign-up and an enrollment.

What is a Sign-Up?

A sign-up simply means that a customer has created a user profile on your Thinkific site. In order for your customers to enroll in your courses and interact with your content, they must create a user profile. When creating a user profile, they are required to fill out the following:

1. First Name
2. Last Name
3. Email Address
4. Password
5. Required Custom Fields

This is typically filled out when they complete a checkout process on your Thinkific site. Thinkific's performance checkout, which is available by default for all creators, collects required information during the purchase. As such, it is rare for students to create an account but not complete a purchase with the performance checkout.

If you are using Thinkific's performance checkout, use the abandoned cart functionality to convert missed sales opportunities into sales. With abandoned cart functionality, potential buyers who left the checkout without completing the purchase will be added to the leads table as leads.

If you are using our legacy two-step checkout, you might see students with no enrollments due to checkout abandonment. The two-step checkout involves the following steps:

1. Account creation: this is where the student will fill out their name, email, address information and password
2. Payment details: this is where the student will enter their billing information

If a customer completes the first step in this process, it is a sign-up and a user profile will be created in your Thinkific account. If they do not complete the second step in the checkout to pay for your course, they will not have any enrollments, but will still exist in your Users page.

Sometimes, students might accidentally create an account through a Sign-Up page, which creates a user account without any enrollments.

Review a user profile to check to see if they have any enrollments:

1. From your Admin Dashboard, select Users
2. Select All Users
3. Find users who have not enrolled by Enrollment status=Never enrolled filter.

Note that this filter will include users who have only purchased a digital download or a coaching or webinar product, as purchasing access to digital downloads or coaching & webinar products does not create an enrollment.

Learn more about filters here: User Table: User Report and Filters.

What is an Enrollment?

When a student completes the checkout and purchases a product, they have an enrollment. By enrolling in your product, the student gets access to the product and its associated content.

Note that purchasing access to digital downloads and coaching or webinar products does not create an enrollment.

Not all users will have enrollments, but all enrollments must be users. For example, if a student had not yet created a user profile on your Thinkific site, but tried to purchase your course, they would be forced to sign up first. Only after signing up would they be able to enroll in your course!

Additionally, because a student can enroll in multiple products with one user account, you may see more enrollments than user accounts in Thinkific Analytics or your Admin Dashboard.

Frequently Asked Questions