How A Global Sports Brand Turns ‘Forgot Password’ into Happy Customers

Online passwords are a nuisance. Everyone knows this. Managing them is a nightmare — for both users and businesses — which is a big reason why the world is moving toward passwordless experiences and passkeys. 

The worst part about passwords might be the dreaded “forgot password” experience. As a user, it always seems like it takes about five too many steps to successfully reset your password. Many users just give up.

It doesn’t have to be this way. That’s why I wanted to share how one of our clients, a major sports brand, worked with us to redirect the reset password user flow — and use it to convert their customers to passwordless accounts. It worked beautifully. 

More about that in a moment. But first, it’s important to understand all of the negative consequences of forgotten passwords. 
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The business cost of forgotten passwords 

Digital experience leaders are acutely aware that friction is costly, especially as it relates to abandoned shopping carts. But we don’t always think about the cost of friction involved in resetting a password. 

As users, we’ve all had experiences when the reset password flow simply didn’t work. Systematically, resetting a password involves multiple, orchestrated events — and if anything goes wrong, the entire user experience fails. Sometimes emails or text messages with reset links don’t send correctly. Sometimes web pages for setting new passwords don’t load correctly, or the integrated forms don’t transmit data correctly. There can also be delays in synching new passwords to back-end servers, forcing customers to try logging in later (if they remember). 

These hiccups cause many users to contact customer support for help unlocking an account. Operationally, those calls and contacts can be expensive. Forrester research estimates that for some businesses, forgotten passwords cause 50% of helpdesk inquiries and cost up to $70 per inquiry to resolve.  

Meanwhile, many users just give up. Some estimates show that 30% of all people who start a “forgot password” process never actually finish. Further, one survey found that 76% of users abandoned a shopping cart because they had trouble resetting a password. 

Maybe even worse, many people who forget or can’t find their passwords never even try to reset their passwords. I’m guilty of this.   

I recently needed a pair of running shoes and found a pair and brand I liked online — but forgot my password to my account for the retailer selling them. I chose not to bother resetting my password. Instead, I found the same boots available on Amazon. Admittedly, I actually spent more because I didn’t want to go through the password reset hassle. I just gave up. 

‍For online retailers, a lost purchase is a big deal. But even worse is losing repeat customers who never reset their accounts. Especially at a time when brands are putting increasingly more focus on first-party (customer) data and customer loyalty programs — as the end of third-party cookies nears. A first-party database is worthless if existing customers don’t know how to log in.  
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Turning lost passwords into happy customers

Users and businesses agree that passwords are a nuisance. Especially forgotten and lost passwords. However, lost passwords can be an opportunity to get rid of passwords. Talk about turning lemons into lemonade.  

We worked with a major sports brand to redirect the reset password flow and help users convert their accounts to biometric authentication through passkeys. No more passwords — you simply use the same mechanism that unlocks your phone or computer. 

It starts when users click on the “forgot password” link. Next, this sports brand’s account recovery page offers a choice to use biometrics to log in — or to reset and continue to use a password. If it’s an iOS or MacOS device, you can choose FaceID or TouchID. On an Android device, you can choose the same method used to log into the phone — including pin code, fingerprint, facial recognition, and more. These screenshots show the iOS and Android interfaces: 
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During this process, our authentication tech generates an encrypted passkey that becomes the mechanism to unlock a user account. The next time someone wants to log in on the device, it’s the same simple process as signing into a phone. No more passwords.
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Conversion rates from lost password to passwordless      

For this sports brand, using the forgot password user flow to convert accounts to passwordless has driven an immediate return on investment. 

Seven out of 10 people who tapped the forgot password link chose to enable biometrics instead of resetting their password. And 71% of users who started setting up biometrics and passkeys finished it.

Another key metric: Our client saw an immediate 50% reduction in customer service calls related to forgotten passwords. 

Meanwhile, we know that themarketing team is ecstatic, too — because by successfully moving people to a passwordless experience, the percentage of active customers in their customer database will certainly rise over time. And that first-party data will inevitably be more valuable as the active database grows.

After all, fewer people like me will simply give up due to lost passwords. Because they won’t have passwords — or the nuisance that comes with them.
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‍Carlos Raimundo is the VP of Product at OwnID, founded in 2021 to reinvent consumer authentication. With deep experience in identity management from his time at market leader Gigya (acquired by SAP in 2017), Carlos believes that passwords remain a glaring security vulnerability and a major user friction point, and is on a mission to help transform the customer identity market.
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