How SSO Can Improve Conversion Rates on Apps and Ecommerce Websites

Improving user conversion rates on apps and websites is a challenging business, but SSO can help. In fact, using Single Sign-On lowers the barriers to entry significantly enough that some of the biggest sites in the business are choosing it to grow their user base. It’s marketing and UX (user experience) in one.

Ironically, as the exodus from Facebook continues, Facebook logins are increasing thanks in part to sites and apps that use Facebook for SSO login. Facebook login credentials are now the most-used credentials in the world, even if a significant portion of that traffic isn’t coming from Facebook. In this way, an organization basically outsources its password management and support to Facebook, which bears all the costs.

Think that’s not significant? The cost to reset a username/password combination, including staff time, is estimated at $15-30 per password reset, needed an average of four times a year per user, for a total cost of $22.50 per user every year. If your user base is at all significant, so is the savings.

“The cost to reset a username/password combination, including staff time, is estimated at $15-30 per password reset.”

-giac.org

And don’t underestimate the turn-off that whole experience is to users. With SSO, users don’t ever have to reset or recover a password, because it’s the one they use every day, the one that’s most central and most remembered. Automatically, your site or app escape one of the most common sources of friction with your users. Tapglue reported in 2016 that “data has shown that 86% of people are bothered by having to create a new login for each website. 77% say that social login is a good solution.”

Social Proof Boosts Branding and Reduces Friction

From a user perspective, a site or app offering a big brand name login option, such as Twitter, appears larger and more influential, and possibly more trustworthy as well. The user may feel that since their pre-existing credentials are accepted at the site/app, they are already recognized, already a part of your user base. 

86% of people are bothered by having to create a new login for each website. 77% say that social login is a good solution.”

-Webhostingbuzz.com

Users who can join up with SSO feel less of a barrier to entry than someone who is forced to create a new username/password. They also escape that awful moment when their new password isn’t accepted because it doesn’t have eight digits, four Cyrillic letters, and an Avengers reference.

An Annex Cloud whitepaper states that 77% of Internet users believe that social login is a good registration solution, and 60% of shoppers are more likely to use it on mobile.

“Adding an SSO option typically increases sign-ups by 20-40%”

-Kevin White, Marketing Manager at Gigya

Interestingly, the biggest gains in conversions come when you offer both options: to create a new ID and password connected with users’ existing email accounts and a brand name SSO. This is associated with an 8.5% increase in sign-ups. According to Kevin White, a marketing manager at Gigya, adding an SSO option typically increases sign-ups by 20-40%, and he strongly advises adding more than one SSO option, singling out Facebook, Google, and Twitter as the most popular choices.

SSO Is Faster and Stickier

SSO also increases speed from a user landing on your site or app to a user using your app or site. If using your site is relatively effortless, and returning to your site offers no barriers like repeated demands to sign in, your site has a huge advantage over clunkier competitors. What used to take filling out a form now takes one click. Once the user is in, SSO helps keep them there, by ensuring they don’t have repeated demands for sign-ins. The experience is frictionless.

20% of people on average will choose to use social login versus traditional login.

-Addshoppers.com

Addshoppers, experts in online shopper identity, state that: “We’ve seen across our entire network that 20% of people on average will choose to use social login versus traditional login. This means people like it (also worth mentioning — that number is increasing). We also came across some research from Blue Research Group about why customers prefer social login:

•65% say it’s faster than registering on a website (time is money)

•50% said it means one less password to remember

•12% say it ensures the website is personalized

The Most Popular Social Login Options by Network

Social Login Encourages Quick Checkout on Ecommerce

Social login is also proven to increase conversion rates across web and mobile properties. Ecommerce brands can decrease shopping cart abandonment by allowing consumers to log in via payment providers like PayPal or Amazon, which streamline the checkout process by pre-populating mandatory fields. It gives customers a fast and easy way to verify their identities and purchases.

As per the survey, After Social login implementation, Conversion rates increase up to 40% and shopping cart abandonment can be down by as much as 10%. Read Knowband’s 10 Benefits of Social Login in Ecommerce.

Add SSO in Minutes with Bread & Butter

Want to give your conversion rate a bump, reduce the time it takes to get users onboarded into your app, and take more control over logins? Try Bread & Butter’s authentication API. With minimal time and effort, you can add SSO to your existing login screens and gain access to login data via our map-based admin dashboard.