The advantages of social logins
There are so many things that get swept under the rug when our precious time doesn’t allow for their attention. When dirty laundry starts piling up, the classic excuse is that we’re just too busy. If we realize that we haven’t called an out-of-town friend or family member, it’s usually because time just didn’t allow for that overdue chat. Even something as trivial as creating an account to make an online purchase falls under the there-aren’t-enough-hours-in-the-day syndrome.
But for an etailer trying to battle that mentality, perhaps social logins can be cure for those customers who have limited free time. With a social login, new users can bypass the eternal sighs that come with providing their personal information and creating a new password (yet again).
“Rather than creating a separate account for each site, users can sign in with their, say, Facebook username and password (or Twitter, or whatever),” explained Jonathan Fisher in an article published by EcommerceTrends.com. “This way, consumers feel they benefit by minimizing the accounts they have to manage, and companies gain direct access to all of the demographic data a customer has posted on his or her social account.”
So clearly, the advantages that come from offering a social login aren’t relegated to the consumer. According to Fishman’s findings, etailers who allow shoppers to brose their sites via social logins boost their page views and time on site by significant margins and can even increase sales by up to 75 percent.
Those same etailers are also able to gain free advertising without lifting a finger – they’re awfully busy too, you know. Often times Pinterest users link their site to their Facebook page, which automatically posts the products that they’re interested in on their timeline. Referred to as social sharing, this new form of word-of-mouth can be incredibly valuable for an etailer trying to gain footing in the ever-growing competitive marketplace.
Another interesting facet of social logins, highlighted by Michael Stelzner of SocialMediaExaminer.com, is that once people log in to their favorite social network, they generally don’t log out. So even if a shopper is just browsing, there’s a good chance that they’ll use the social login before entering an etailer’s site.
Furthermore, “because social networks authenticate individuals and generally don’t allow multiple accounts, the likelihood of false identities and spammers goes down,” Stelzner explains. Heightened security is therefore granted to both the consumer and the etailer.
Etailers, however, should be sensitive to the differing ways that their customers shop. Offering up the traditional method of creating an account as well as the option to use a social login should satisfy most everyone’s habits – and schedules. Not everyone wants to login with their Facebook page – and believe it or not, not everyone has one.
“Some may feel that sharing their data is not worth the benefit of easier login and a more personalized experience on the website,” says Larry Drebes, a contributor for Forbes. “That’s their right, and it’s why many websites continue to offer traditional registration via the user’s own site-specific username and password.
“History shows that new technologies can lead to changes in our social behavior,” he concludes. “But what never changes is our expectation as citizens that we will be the ones to decide whether and under what conditions we are willing to make those changes.”
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