Can supporting OpenID boost your conversion rates?

One of the hardest conversions is getting new users to register for a website. A sign-up form is the single greatest turn-off to potential users.Having to re-submit the same personal details and create new user-name/password combinations is a tedious process and one that users avoid whenever possible.

Most users tend to use similar usernames and passwords between multiple sites. But obstacles like site-specific password formats and unavailable user-names keep increasing the number of combinations that users must remember.

This hurts conversion numbers.

Traditionally SEM experts assigned to boosting conversion rates on websites focus on things like prioritizing content, landing page optimization and basic design cleanliness. More experienced pros will also look at easing the checkout or sign-up procedure to make sure that users that start the conversion process don’t get discouraged and drop out.

Where does OpenID fit in ?
If you make your 2 page sign-up form into a simpler single page form, chances are your conversions will more than double (sometimes even getting 4 times as many sign-ups). The number of people that drop out mid way through a sign-up form seem to be exponential to the length of the form. What If you could remove 90% of the form? When adopted wisely, OpenID can do this.

Case Study: Wishlistr [ http://www.wishlistr.com/ ]

Wishlistr is a web app used to create, organize and share wishlists. The UI is pleasing and the illustrated style is currenly very popular in the web design world. What’s different about wishlistr is that it’s one of the few services that support OpenID well.

Here is their standard sign-up form with the usual required fields; name, email, username and password. Then fill out the fields, confirm the email and continue on to use the application.

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But if you notice the top-right corner of the form, they also support OpenID.

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Selecting to use OpenID takes you directly to the Login page, No Sign-Up step required. Just simply login with your OpenID and it will grab your personal from your OpenID provider and setup the account itself.

Imagine the conversion rates if there was no need for a sign-up form at all. With wider adoption OpenID can help us achieve that.

Caveats of OpenID

Very few websites support it – https://www.myopenid.com/directory has a list of over 130 better known websites that currently support OpenID and the list is continuously growing.

Very few users have OpenIDs – this is a catch22 situation, when more websites support it more users will have them, and when more users have them, more websites will support it. But OpenID is not a replacement to traditional forms and login methods, it’s an alternative, they can co-exist peacefully.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenID reports that “As of July 2007, there are over 120 million OpenIDs on the Internet (see below) and approximately 4,500 sites have integrated OpenID consumer support. “

There are many more valid criticisms of OpenID as a technology but not as a sign-up process. My suggestion is do your own research before deciding if the convenience outweighs the risks.

About the Author: Ayush Saran