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Yesterday, nearly half of your potential customers left full carts behind. Not because of your prices, but because they couldn’t remember a password. Those abandoned carts represent real revenue that passwordless authentication aims to recoup. This data comes from the recent 2025 FIDO Alliance Report for “World Passkey Day.” The international survey reveals we’ve arrived at a crucial inflection point: passkeys are here, and businesses that move now can gain a measurable advantage.
Here’s what you need to know from the latest FIDO report, and how you can start benefitting from the booming passwordless ecosystem.
Main points
Passwordless benefits: Adopting passkeys provides meaningful opportunities to strengthen security, reduce friction, and win customer loyalty.
Growing awareness: Most respondents knew about passkeys, and an impressive number use them on all available accounts.
Passkey pledge: Organizations are affirming their commitment to ridding the world of passwords and supporting the passkey ecosystem.
Why passkeys matter now
The report shows that 75 percent of global consumers are now aware of passkeys, which marks a massive jump in public recognition compared to just a few years ago. Even more encouraging, among those who know about passkeys, most agree they offer stronger security (53 percent) and greater convenience (54 percent) than passwords.
Meanwhile, nearly half (48%) of the top 100 websites reviewed by the FIDO Alliance offered passkeys as a login method. This is more than double the number that FIDO previously reported in 2022, and it represents a dramatic shift toward enterprise and consumer adoption.
This matters because customer expectations are changing. People no longer settle for security alone; they want it seamless. They expect to sign in quickly, avoid frustrating reset processes, and know their data is protected. Passkeys, which are phishing-resistant and work without requiring memorization, deliver on both fronts.
The cost of sticking with passwords
Passwords are not just inconvenient; they are expensive.
Nearly half of consumers say they have abandoned a purchase because they forgot their password.
Every password reset request drives up support costs for your team.
Stolen credentials create exposure to account takeover (ATO), fraud, and reputation damage.
Businesses that continue to rely solely on passwords are frustrating their customers and exposing themselves to unnecessary costs and risks.
How businesses can start using passkeys
You might wonder what this looks like in practice for your business. Let’s walk through some examples where passkeys can provide immediate value.
Reducing checkout abandonment in ecommerce
A customer adds products from your online store to their cart, heads to checkout, and is prompted to log in or create an account. They forget their password or cannot remember which social account they used last time, so they leave.
With passkeys, you can offer a simple, secure login that works across devices without a password. A returning customer sees a “Sign in with passkey” option, authenticates using their device (such as Face ID or fingerprint), and completes their purchase within seconds. There are no reset emails, no drop-offs, and no lost sales.
Protecting high-value accounts in digital services
High-value accounts are common targets for credential stuffing attacks, where attackers use stolen passwords to break in. Without an additional layer of security to bolster traditional credentials, threat actors can gain access with minimal effort.
Adding passkey support offers single-action multi-factor authentication (MFA). Instead of typing passwords, they authenticate using a trusted device (possession factor) and using biometrics to unlock the account (inherence factor). This reduces ATO risk and improves the user experience, making customers less likely to churn due to lockouts or account hijacking.
Streamlining the end-to-end customer experience
Simply put, logging in is just as much a part of the customer journey as any other element. According to Shopify, as page load speed increases from 1 second to 10 seconds, conversion rates plummet from 3.05% to just 1.33%. Now, imagine what happens when logging in takes longer than expected. Here’s what Microsoft discovered in their passkey rollout: Passkey logins are three times faster than traditional passwords and eight times faster than a password plus traditional MFA. Passkeys aren’t just a “password alternative”—they’re a gateway for making auth a conversion enabler.
What the Passkey Pledge signals
The 2025 FIDO Alliance Report shows that consumer awareness of passkeys is on the rise, and businesses are starting to respond. Another important signal of this shift is the Passkey Pledge, launched this year by the FIDO Alliance. More than 100 companies, including Descope, have already joined this initiative, making a public commitment to support and promote passkey adoption.
For business owners, the message is clear. Waiting too long to implement passkeys risks falling behind competitors who are already delivering faster, safer, and more seamless experiences to their customers.
How Descope helps you go passwordless
At Descope, we make it simple for businesses to integrate passkeys into their authentication user journeys. Our platform offers:
Passkey integration across web and mobile applications.
Low / no-code flows that let you customize sign-in user journeys without heavy development.
Multi-factor and risk-based authentication layered on top of passkeys for additional protection when needed.
The ability to A/B test passkeys against other auth methods for staggered deployments.
The ability to add fallback auth methods when end user devices are not WebAuthn-compatible.
We work with businesses of all sizes, from startups to global enterprises, to help modernize authentication and deliver better user experiences.
Also read: How Branch Insurance reduced auth-related support tickets by 50% with passkeys
Ready for the passwordless future?
Major platforms like Apple, Google, and Microsoft already support passkeys, which are increasingly familiar to consumers. Availability is no longer the barrier. The next step is implementation.
If you want to improve security, reduce customer friction, and future-proof your authentication experience, the time to act is now. Explore how Descope can help you join the passwordless movement and create seamless, secure logins for your customers.
Start your passkey journey by signing up for a Free Forever Descope account, joining our dev community, or scheduling a demo with our auth experts.
