• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, October 16, 2023

Email teams being challenged with high cart abandonment rates should push back — the real problem is not bad personalization or copy, but passwords. 

People are fed up with them. And their behavior reflects it, judging by the 2023 Online Authentication Barometer, a global study by the Fido Alliance, conducted by Sapio Research.  

U.S. consumers abandon a purchase and stop accessing an online service because they can’t remember their passwords 4.76 times per day on average, up from 3.71 in 2022 — a 28.30% increase. 

Of those polled, almost half abandon purchases in the following number of times: 

Never — 53%

1 to 2 — 22% 

3 to 5 — 13% 

6 to 10 — 6% 

11 to 15 — 3%

More than 15 — 2%

And shoppers are even more likely to give up on accessing an online service for this reason: 

• Never — 39%
• 1 to 2 — 30%
• 3 to 5 — 16%
• 6 to 10 — 8%
• 11 to 15 — 3% 
• More than 15 — 3% 

Some of the frustration may be due to frequency — people in the U.S. enter a password manually without two-factor authentication a mean average of 4.49 times per day or 1,639.38 times per year — the global high.  

Consumers have their own ideas on how to deal with the problem: oddly, biometrics is the most popular method of signing in:  

• Biometrics (e.g. fingerprint or face scan) — 23% 
• Using a complex password that only I will remember — 17%
• A One Time Passcode (OTP) sent to my handset or tablet — 12% 
• A browser’s auto firm-fill to enter my password — 12% 
• Authentication application (e.g., Authy, Duo, Microsoft or Google Authenticator) — 10% 
• A password manager — 10% 
• QR code — 2%
• Physical security key (e.g. Yubikey, Google Titan) — 4%
• Other — 1% 
• I don’t know — 8%

They seem fairly aware of passkeys. They say they are: 

• Very familiar — I have heard of them and understand the concept — 37% 
• Somewhat familiar—I have a rough understanding — 26% 
• Unsure — 11%
• Not very familiar — I can hazard a guess at what they are, but I’m not familiar — 10% 
• Not familiar at all — I have never heard of this concept, and have no idea what it is — 24%

Add it all up, and 63% are very or somewhat familiar.  

This study was conducted in the context of security. It found that 54% have seen an increase in suspicious messages and scams, and that the bad actors have become more sophisticated. But 52% believe that they are better at spotting them. 

Sapio Research surveyed 10,010 consumers across the U.S., U.K., Germany, Australia, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, India and China in August 2023.