80% of consumers prefer ID verification measures when choosing online brands, study finds

By Gaia Lamperti

The majority of consumers across the globe now have to use their digital identity to access their online accounts following the pandemic. A recently released study by Jumio, a provider of eKYC and AML solutions, found that consumers in Singapore report the highest level of digital identity use (70%), as opposed to in the UK (50%), the US (52%) and Mexico (55%).

The report shows the impact of the increasing use of digital identity on consumer preferences and expectations and questioned 8,000 adult consumers split evenly across the UK, US, Singapore and Mexico.

As providing a digital identity to create an online account or complete a transaction becomes more commonplace globally, consumers are now expecting this as part of their engagement with a brand, specifically in certain sectors.

Over two-thirds of consumers (68%) think it is important to use a digital identity to prove who they say they are when using a financial service online, closely followed by healthcare providers (52%) and social media sites (42%). While all markets were united in financial services being the most important sector for robust identity verification, consumers in Mexico believe it is an important step when interacting with sharing economy brands (49%).

UK consumers believe it should be required when shopping online (40%). Where more sensitive personal data is concerned, consumers indicated robust identity verification becomes even more important.    

“As our use of online services only continues to grow, organizations are clearly implementing the robust identity verification methods required to prevent the risks associated with virtual services,” said Philipp Pointner, Jumio’s Chief of Digital Identity. “But this research reveals the demand for digital identity solutions, too – particularly in the financial services and healthcare spaces – and is clearly now a point of differentiation. Implementing these kinds of solutions should be a ‘when,’ not a ‘maybe,’ and will now ultimately determine whether a consumer chooses your business over another.”

Despite more consumers demanding digital identity solutions for verification when engaging with companies online, they aren’t confident that all businesses are doing everything they can to protect their online accounts. Only one-third (34%) of consumers believe that their bank has implemented more online identity verification checks since the pandemic to protect them against online fraud and identity theft. Similarly, in the gaming and gambling space, less than half (41%) of consumers say they are “confident” that providers are doing what they can to accurately verify identities and prevent identity-related fraud. 

While digital identity solutions are recognized as important in preventing identity-related fraud, consumers have other concerns that these solutions could address. In healthcare, one-third of consumers (32%) are most concerned about not knowing the identity of the healthcare practitioner they are engaging with. This is also of particular concern for consumers in Mexico (45%). In the social media space, an overwhelming majority of consumers (83%) think that it’s important for social media sites to verify identities so that they can hold users accountable for online hate speech/comments. As such, the use cases and benefits of digital identity extend beyond just fraud prevention and could provide a solution to broader consumer concerns.