Only four of the top 50 UK ecommerce websites offer social login or social connect to customers, according to new research from big data and text analytics company Hello Soda.
Social login is vital for getting users to sign up and use apps and m-web sites – and online sites too – as it saves time and the need for remembering passwords and more. It can also act as a way of verifying who people are ,thus avoiding fraud.
After analysing the purchasing processes of the 50 busiest ecommerce sites, Hello Soda found that only Netflix, ASOS, Dominos and Ryanair give the option of utilising a social media account when signing up or registering for their services.
Since this process allows customers to access services by simply using their social media account, it often saves time filling in long registration forms, and cuts down the number of details they need to remember, reducing friction and streamlining the user journey. Therefore, this research highlights the fact that ecommerce sites may be failing to convert website traffic into revenue, especially on mobile.
James Blake, CEO at Hello Soda explains: “These findings show that many ecommerce giants are missing a trick. Modern consumers demand convenience, and if they can buy the same thing more quickly elsewhere they will. Those that fail to integrate tools that can speed up the purchasing process could be losing valuable custom to their competitors. It is important that ecommerce businesses can properly engage with modern day consumers on their terms. Offering social connect and other tools that streamline the transaction or registration processes both help to attract and retain customers while offering the added benefit of verifying identity in real-time.”
ID verification is an essential element of the purchase process when buying age restricted goods or services, or placing a high-value order. Therefore, this research suggests that many of the top ecommerce sites may be putting themselves at risk by not leveraging digital data to corroborate their customers’ identity.
Blake continues: “There are other benefits of social connect too. Not only do these tools use the data available about a customer to pre-fill registration and application forms, they can also complete age and ID verification in real-time leading to boosted customer acquisition- in fact we have seen our clients increase customer on-boarding in populations that would traditionally be rejected by up to 60%. Companies that choose not to use digital data in this way and offer alternative methods of verification, or self-verification like a simple tick-box, could unknowingly be enabling fraudulent or illegal transactions, which could be drastically reduced with the addition of social connect.”
