Frictionless user experience (UX) is one of the most valued goals in online retail because it can increase customer satisfaction, loyalty, and conversion rates. Any obstacles or barriers customers may encounter while navigating through a website or completing a task create friction in the context of UX.
In this three-part blog series, we will delve into an aspect of UX friction often overlooked: the problem with guest checkout. Asking customers to create an account is a major friction point in their purchase journey. While guest checkouts have become the most popular workaround, they are far from perfect, leaving billions in revenue on the table.
As we explore the future of UX, we’ll unravel the challenges associated with guest login and discuss potential solutions that can create a seamless customer journey without compromising on data security or user experience.
It’s time to rethink how we approach identity friction and remove obstacles in the checkout process.
Obstacles can include frustrating logins, slow-loading pages, complex navigation, confusing checkout processes, and other factors that can make the user experience more difficult or frustrating.
Frictionless UX aims to remove these obstacles and create a seamless and effortless customer experience. Several strategies to improve this include:
- Simplifying the navigation (for example, placement of buttons or shortcuts)
- Reducing the number of steps in the checkout process
- Optimising the website’s speed and performance
- Clear and concise signposting throughout the customer journey.
Each obstacle can impact the user experience, but none more so than the login success rate.
The success rate for login attempts typically ranges from 60% to 85%, depending on industries. If your login success rate is lagging behind, revamping your checkout experience is crucial. This metric can reveal untapped potential and drive better results for your business.
But first, let’s see why your business should care about frictionless UX.
The benefits of frictionless UX
- Increased customer satisfaction: A frictionless UX can significantly improve customer satisfaction because it makes it easy for customers to find what they need quickly and complete their desired actions with minimal effort. When customers can navigate a website or app without feeling frustrated or confused, they are more likely to form a favourable opinion of the brand. That leads to increased customer loyalty and repeat business.
- Improved revenue & retention: A frictionless UX reduces the likelihood of customers abandoning their shopping cart before completing their desired purchase. Conversion rates could increase to 400% when a smooth UX enables customers to find their products and seamlessly transact without login friction.
- Enhanced brand reputation: A frictionless UX gives customers a positive experience that is the best marketing for your brand. When customers enjoy using a website or application, they are likely to share their experience with others, leave positive reviews, and recommend the brand to their friends and family.
What is the best way to identify friction in the customer experience?
You can use a variety of methods to gather feedback from customers. Here are some practical ways to identify friction in the customer experience:
Conduct customer surveys
One of the most effective ways to identify friction in the customer experience is to conduct customer surveys. Surveys can be used to gather customer feedback about their experience with the website, application, or product. Businesses can ask specific questions about the customer journey, such as whether they found the website easy to navigate, if they encountered any problems during the checkout process, and if they would recommend the brand to others.
Analyse customer behaviour
Another way to identify friction in the customer experience is to analyse customer behaviour on the website or application using analytics tools such as heatmaps, click tracking and session recording.
By analysing customer behaviour, businesses can identify patterns that indicate friction in the customer journey, such as customers abandoning their shopping cart or spending a long time on a particular page.
Use customer feedback tools
Several tools can help businesses gather customer feedback, such as chatbots, feedback forms, and social media listening tools. Unlike automated emails, these tools can collect customer feedback in real time. That allows businesses to identify any issues in the customer experience quickly.
Conduct A/B user testing with MIRACL
To truly understand and optimise the customer journey, user testing is essential. By observing customers as they interact with your website or application and collecting feedback on their experience, you can gain valuable insights into any areas of friction.
By A/B testing your login using MIRACL, businesses can find out if their login is losing them money. Once customers have experienced MIRACL’s username and password-free login, businesses will likely see an impact on the user experience.
But many online retailers think they have already found a good enough solution to reduce friction in the user experience: the guest checkout.
The solution that isn’t one: guest checkout
Guest checkouts have become ubiquitous in online retail. And they look like the perfect solution to create a frictionless UX: customers often want to complete their transactions quickly without having to go through the hassle of registering or logging in, and retailers don’t want to lose out on business. But this solution has its drawbacks.
One of the main problems with guest checkout is the lack of personalisation. Customers provide personal information when registering or creating an account. This information can be used to personalise the customer experience by understanding their buying behaviours, offering personalised recommendations, targeted promotions, and more.
Without this information, businesses cannot deliver a personalised experience that meets teach customer’s individual needs And most customers (69%) value a personalised and consistent customer experience across multiple channels.
Another issue with guest checkout is that it may not always be as frictionless as it seems. In a Baymard Institute survey, checkout friction was found to be almost level with account creation as a reason for abandoning a purchase. Clearly, many customers find the login experience as a guest just as tiresome as creating an account.
So even with guest checkout, there may still be friction in the checkout process that can discourage customers from completing their transactions.
And guest checkout may also make it harder for businesses to build long-term customer relationships. With customer registration and account creation, businesses can build customer loyalty and drive repeat business.
It’s possible to love your login
In a world where user experience is everything, MIRACL provides a solution that can help you increase sales and brand loyalty by decreasing friction in the UX experience.
MIRACL’s password-free, single-step Multi-Factor Authentication takes just two seconds to log in. It works entirely within the browser window on any device, with no redirects, second devices, SMS, or passwords. Your customers can log in quickly and easily without the hassle of remembering multiple passwords or dealing with clunky authentication apps.
MIRACL can easily replace guest login and simultaneously provide a better user experience for your customers. With MIRACL, customers can log in quickly and securely with just one PIN, eliminating the need for guest login.
MIRACL provides a privacy-first approach to authentication, meaning that your customers’ personal data remains secure. However, once they log in, your e-commerce business can still gather valuable data such as browsing behaviour and other relevant information. This data can be used to personalise your offers and create a more engaging brand experience for your customers.
With a login success rate of 99.9%, MIRACL is the highest in the industry. You won’t lose revenue from lost sales or waste time managing forgotten passwords.
Our solution is 5x faster than passwords, 10x faster than authentication apps, and 15x faster than one-time passwords. This means that your customers can spend less time logging in and more time browsing and shopping on your site.
By integrating MIRACL into your website, you can provide your customers with a seamless login experience that is fast, secure, and hassle-free. This can lead to increased sales and brand loyalty as customers are more likely to return to a site that offers a user-friendly experience.
If you want to improve your user experience and increase sales, MIRACL is the solution you need. With our single-step, password-free authentication tool, you can make it easier for your customers to log in and love their login experience. Take advantage of our innovative technology and A/B test your customer journey here.
