Passwords are tripping up online buyers

The struggle to understand why shoppers abandon their shopping carts continues. A new study shows that it's not the technology or the look of the site or the confusing array of buttons to push that cause shoppers not to complete a sale: It's that they forget their passwords. A survey of 4,000 online shoppers by BizRate.com, reveals that 91% forgot a password at a site with which they had previously registered. More than 40% of those who forgot their passwords chose not to re-register with that site. In addition, 57% of survey respondents have abandoned their shopping experiences online at least once due to password frustrations, resulting in more than a third returning to offline alternatives. At the same time it released the poll results, BizRate also introduced a product that it says eliminates forgotten passwords. BizRate's shopping toolbar on its shopping-portal site has an automatic form-filling feature that enables consumers to shop at more than 1,200 stores with just a single password.