I'm finally finished reading and reviewing EVERY page of the Documentation / User Manual while setting up my first AbanteCart store shopping cart. I just looked at the "Total Customers" Report. It WRONGLY lists my email address that I used to test the Newsletter Subscription process as being a "CUSTOMER"! This email represents "a newsletter subscriber", and NOT a customer. This really needs to be changed because it's not only NOT correct, it's misleading.
A real "customer" is someone who has bought something. They can also be a newsletter subscriber. Someone who is ONLY a newsletter subscriber is NOT a "customer". Further, if we allow someone to purchase from our store without registering, then they are a "customer", but NOT a registered "customer".
There needs to be at least these two classes of people:
1 - A customer. They are someone who has purchased something. A customer may, or may not be a newsletter subscriber. They should be given the choice to subscribe to our newsletter, or not, during checkout. The program should check to see if they are already a newsletter subscriber, and update their record.
2 - A newsletter subscriber. They are NOT a customer... yet. They are a "potential" customer though.