Consumers will abandon a brand that can’t balance convenience and privacy

The global transformation of daily life has changed how people everywhere interact with brands. With experiences increasingly online, consumers are less tolerant of frustration and will abandon a brand if they aren’t able to balance convenience and privacy, according to a survey from Ping Identity.

“With more options than ever before, businesses now need to integrate their security, privacy and user experience strategies to keep up with modern consumer expectations,” said Richard Bird, chief customer information officer, Ping Identity.

“Individuals have no hesitations about finding better experiences elsewhere, so companies that prioritize customer experience now will earn loyalty in the long run.”

Consumers demand easy, fast experiences

• 77% have abandoned or stopped creating an online account for a variety of reasons, including being asked to provide too much personal information (40%), needing too much time to enter info (33%), and too many security steps (29%).
• 56% have abandoned an online service when logging in was too frustrating.
• 63% are likely to leave an online service for a competitor who makes it significantly easier to authenticate identity.

As passwords get worse, passwordless looks even better

• 58% are comfortable with the concept of a digital ID capability that stores personal information securely on a smartphone to share electronically.
• 46% would prefer to use a service or site that offers an alternative to passwords.
• 44% admit to weak password practices, including making a minor change to an old password (29%) or reusing a password from another account (15%.).

Privacy should be transparent and simple

• 85% are interested in learning how online services share their personal information, but 72% say that information is difficult to find.
• 72% have manually adjusted their profile settings to control privacy—including a massive 89% of Gen Z.
• 60% have dropped an account over privacy concerns, including 46% who have done so more than once.