A little friction can be a good thing for businesses and consumers

Businesses and consumers can benefit from a risk-based approach to friction

With both account-opening and account-takeover fraud rapidly growing, both businesses and their consumers can benefit from a risk-based approach to friction. The higher risk the transaction, the more friction businesses can consider accepting.

In fact, consumers are increasingly leaving their desire and demand for frictionless onboarding, (or “passive” authentication), when it comes to risk-based online activities, financial or personal (data and personal safety), behind – foregoing convenience for security. Sure, when signing up for a new email address or other such low-risk online activities, users can go through as few steps as possible without much risk to the platform or to the user. But when a lot of personally identifiable information (PII) or financial transactions are at stake, or when doing business online with strangers, a strong and secure digital identity verification process (even one that adds a few minutes to the onboarding process) will support more consumer and business confidence.

Customers data is showing a little friction is a good thing

85% of consumers are more likely to interact with websites that verify the identity of all users¹

66% say: “I like all the security protocols when I interact online because it makes me feel protected”²

67% prefer doing business with a website that guarantees that a person is who they claim to be³

Document verification + a selfie: an acceptable amount of friction

Businesses can find that striking the right balance of low-friction onboarding – convenience, speed and risk – will provide customers with the value and experience they expect. While, on one hand, studies have shown that most customers may be willing to take a few extra steps to verify their identities in order to achieve that added layer of trust and safety – on the other hand, let’s remember that we’re still moving further into the digital era and that our identity verification solutions still need to encompass a fairly quick and intuitive user experience. In addition to the statistics that tell us how important identity proofing is when it comes to online interactions, 94% of consumers still prefer to complete their transaction online, without having to mail in anything or visit any location.⁴ 

When asking customers to share their identity documents for verification, businesses can look for a fast and intuitive digital identification solution that offers easy, guided user experiences, automated checks that take mere seconds, and ensemble machine learning methodology, automated and reliable face comparison that render clear and accurate results. (Watch our webinar, "Sometimes you need a little friction in your life," here.)

The right amount of friction help your business and your customers to:

• Improve customer experience
• Instill customer trust and confidence
• Foster brand loyalty
• Onboard more good customers, fast
• Reduce fraud