Online properties are facing an uphill battle with limited attention spans and patience of users, especially in the registration department. Registered users are quite valuable for both online publishers and e-commerce sites for many reasons and these companies are looking to use social sign-on to get more registrants without giving up rich profile data, according to a new research report from Gigya and Edge Research entitled “The Value of Social Sign-On and the Registered User.” About 25 percent of online publishers and e-commerce sites have already implemented social-sign on and another 25 percent are currently in the process of doing so. Majority of interviewees are comfortable with social sign-on so we should see an increased number of sites and apps implementing this.
A social sign-on / sign-in is the ability for a user to register using an existing identity. Existing social sign-on’s include Facebook Connect, Twitter OAuth, Google, Yahoo, OpenID etc. The registration rate of users as a percent of visitors for e-commerce sites and online publishing sites is 53 percent and 44 percent, respectively. Many online properties are capturing less data over all in order to avoid attrition that comes from tedious registration processes. But because registered users are valuable, companies need to continue to maintain higher registration rates and still capture information so they can provide users with a more personalized and targeted experience. Along with e-commerce sites and online publishers, start-ups like SportIt.com are using social sign-on exclusively to enable users to register with an existing social identity as their business models rely on social interactions.
From the interviews and surveys, Gigya and Edge Research found that majority of participants agreed that registered users are more loyal and engaged than average visitors. Loyal users tend to share this respective information with their social graph, translating into word of mouth marketing for the brands. E-commerce sites deem these users ‘alpha shoppers’ as they are more likely to comment, share, review, rate, and tweet about the brands they engage with. 31 percent of publishers and 26 percent of e-commerce sites surveyed felt that registered users were a lot more valuable than unregistered users. What’s interesting is that although 30 percent of publishers also felt neutral about the value of registered users vs 19 percent of e-commerce sites, 60 percent of publishers already have implemented or are in the process of implementing social-sign on vs 36 percent of e-commerce sites. Despite awareness of social sign-on, a quarter of online properties have not yet planned for social sign-on – a number we should see change in the near future.
Loyalty was one of the key attributes the interviewees mentioned that registered users possess. Because of their deeper affiliation with the site, 85 percent of interviewees feel that registered users are easier to build relationships with because they are more reliable and spend more time on the site. Word of mouth is another key benefit of registered users. 74 percent of interviewees agreed that these types of users are more likely to generate comments and reviews (as opposed to just giving a star) and promote their brand to their social graph.
Targeting content towards registered users is also a way to increase bottom-line revenue via relevant communication and personalized promotions. 85 percent of interviewees said that they are able to target and follow-up with their registered users more effectively due to profile information access. There’s no doubt that the bottom-line is impacted positively by registered users. In fact, its very probable that users have to first register before they can purchase something – atlas on major online e-commerce sites like Amazon. In addition, registered users may be more comfortable and are thus more likely to complete the check-out process and spend more money as the e-commerce experience becomes more personalized to them.
Another benefit of a social sign-on is the ability to target content and promotions based on user data. With social sign-on techniques like Facebook Connect, online properties get access to vast information about their users such as gender, geographic location, and interests. Because many feel that registered users are more likely to purchase something, its important to provide them with a compelling and hassle-free experience.
Although 92 percent of companies are aware, many of them are still figuring out social sign-on implementations and 75 percent do foresee it impacting their organization’s bottom line. Will consumers react positively or negatively as everything starts becoming personalized to them? To access the report, click here.
