Half of New Retail Customer Identities Will Be Based on Social Network Identities by 2015

By the end of 2015, 50 percent of new retail customer identities will be based on social network identities, up from less than 5 percent today, according to Gartner,Inc. Along with federation technologies and mobile computing, social identity adoption will have a major impact on the practice of identity and access management (IAM) in 2013 and beyond.

Organizations also benefit from the use of social identities for authentication. It reduces the number of abandoned registrations and logins, and makes it easier for customers to browse and buy. Therefore, it also helps organizations attract and retain customers.

However, the lack of identity proofing and weak authentication for social network identities can expose merchants to more fraud. Service providers therefore have to defend themselves. They may allow social network registration, but augment the process with additional controls when a retail site provides access to sensitive data and monetary transactions. Alternatively, merchants may accept the increased risk without additional controls because of the potential increase in the number of customers and the volume of purchases; this approach "passes the buck" to payment card companies — but they already have robust fraud detection and management tools and processes in place. 

More information on CRM and social media can be found at www.CRMindustry.com.