Study reveals ‘often-overlooked’ sources of online cart abandonment
Online shoppers — especially those belonging to a certain generation — have little patience when it comes to password and log-in problems.
While forgotten password may seem like a minor inconvenience, a new study suggests it’s costing online businesses sales. Half (51%) of Americans have abandoned an online purchase at some point because they forgot a password or had trouble logging in, including 37% who have done so within the past year, according to a survey by HostingAdvice of more than 1,000 U.S. adults.
The study highlights an often-overlooked source of cart abandonment: A customer can find a product, decide to buy it, and still disappear when a password stands between them and checkout. It found that younger shoppers are especially quick to walk away. A big majority (72%) of Gen Z have abandoned a purchase over login trouble, compared with 37% of baby boomers, with 56% having done so within the past year. (To read the full study, click here.)
In other findings, 69% of consumers managing 25 to 49 passwords have abandoned a purchase because of login trouble. Only 17% of Gen Z prefer traditional passwords, while 38% prefer fingerprint or Face ID, which is more than twice the amount of boomers (17%).
Additional highlights from the study are below.
•More than half of respondents (51%) have been locked out of an account because of a password/login problem, and 42% have stopped using an account or website altogether because of it.
•Remembering passwords, in general, is the biggest headache among Americans, with 32% calling it their biggest password-related grievance.
•Another 24% say the most annoying part is coming up with passwords that actually meet a website's requirements (such as minimum character requirement or special characters), while 14% say it's most annoying to keep resetting the passwords they've forgotten.
“Nobody wants to lose a sale because a customer forgot a password, and while businesses can't eliminate account security, they can make the process of getting back in a lot easier,” advised HostingAdvice. “Passkeys, biometrics, password managers, and better account recovery options all give customers a way to check out even if their memory fails them.”
