BACKGROUND

In order to make a purchase from an online merchant, a user is often required, or at least prompted, to create an account with the merchant. If the user wishes to view details about previous purchases, such as estimated delivery date, tracking numbers, date, and amount of purchase, and so on, the user is often required to login to the account using a username and password. However, user names and/or passwords may not be top-of-mind information; that is, user names and/or passwords may be difficult to remember, especially if the user has other accounts with other merchants or online services. Moreover, if the user loses or forgets either the username or password to the account, the process for regaining access to the account can be cumbersome. Furthermore, if the user forgets that he/she already has an account with the merchant, the user may end up creating duplicate accounts, but will only be able to access details about purchases associated with the particular account and not details of all purchases from the merchant made by the user. Additionally, if the user makes purchases from multiple merchants, the user must view details of the purchases separately at each of the merchants' website.

As computers and computer networks become ubiquitous, more and more transactions are being conducted over computer networks. Various mechanisms and procedures have been implemented in order to make such transactions secure and in order to verify and authenticate the parties involved. Often, such verification and authentication requires the user to input information that the user may not readily remember, is intrusive, or is not easily accessible to the user. Accordingly, requiring the user to input such information impedes the transaction and adversely affects the user experience, which may cause fewer transactions to be conducted over computer networks.

