Passwords? We Don’t Need No Stinking Passwords.

Passwords? We Don’t Need No Stinking Passwords.

Passwords are friction.
Friction kills money.

Every extra click costs you 10–20% of conversion.
Force account creation and you can blow up 30–50% of a funnel before checkout even starts.

I’ve watched it happen. Repeatedly.
If your login flow feels old, your numbers probably are too.

Yes — Passwordless Reduces Friction. That’s the Easy Part.

Magic links.
Google One Tap.
Social sign-on.

No passwords.
No reset emails.
No “try again.”

In real production systems, these flows:

• Cut signup time by 60–80%
• Reduce abandonment by 25–40%
• Make support tickets disappear

That alone should get this on your roadmap.

But if you stop there, you’re missing the real move.

The Real Win: Stop Asking for Commitment

Most people who hit your site are interested.
Most of them aren’t buying today.

So why are you demanding an account?

“Create a password” is asking for marriage on the first date.
Popups are just panic with rounded corners.

Modern auth flips the entire model.

One click.
No password.
No form.
No interruption.

You didn’t force a sale — but now you caught the contact.

Real email.
Verified human.
Recognizable device.

That’s worth more than ten popups and a coupon code.

Anonymous Checkout Isn’t the Problem. Passwords Are.

Most e-commerce platforms already do this quietly.

You allow guest checkout.
Behind the scenes, an account still gets created.

Same email.
Same order history.
Same customer record.

And then we screw it up.

We tell the customer to:
“Set a password”
or worse
“Reset your password.”

That’s where friction comes roaring back.

The account already exists.
The trust already exists.

Passwordless fixes the dumbest part of e-commerce.

That “anonymous” account isn’t anonymous — it’s just unclaimed.

Magic link.
Google One Tap.
Done.

No reset.
No confusion.
No support ticket.

The customer isn’t “creating an account.”
They’re picking up something that’s already theirs.

Identity Beats Popups. Every Time.

Popups interrupt people who are thinking.
Identity just remembers them.

They leave? Fine.
They come back? You know it’s them.

Cart’s still there.
Context’s still there.
Momentum’s still there.

That’s not UX polish.
That’s revenue.

One Human. Everywhere.

Here’s where most stacks completely fall apart.

You have:

• A website
• An app
• Email
• Support
• Subscriptions
• Physical products

Without real auth, that’s five versions of the same human.

Different cookies.
Different IDs.
Different “customers.”

Same person.

Now do auth right.

Someone logs into your app with Gmail.
Later they hit the website and use Google One Tap.

That’s not “probably” the same person.
It is the same person.

Now:

• New vs returning is real
• Attribution stops lying
• Cross-channel behavior actually makes sense
• LTV finally means something

You stop guessing.
You start knowing.

This Isn’t Just a B2B Thing

Somehow passwordless auth got labeled “enterprise.”

That’s lazy.

These flows absolutely outperform in e-commerce, especially when:

• The buy isn’t instant
• Customers come back
• Apps and physical products overlap

Winning brands aren’t louder.
They’re smoother.

And No — You Can’t Fix This in Shopify

This is the uncomfortable part.

Shopify lets you do guest checkout.
Behind the scenes, it creates a customer record.

But you cannot reliably unlock that account without passwords.

You’re stuck with:

• Reset emails
• Fragmented identity
• Multiple “customers” that are actually the same person

This isn’t a config problem.
It’s architectural.

Shopify’s auth layer is 1912 tech.
They spent millions on checkout — and left identity behind.

No app fixes that.

Future-Proofing Isn’t Optional

Passwords are dying.
Passkeys are coming like a freight train.

If you deploy real auth now, you don’t panic later.

You don’t rebuild flows.
You don’t rewrite apps.
You don’t scramble.

You flip it on.
Add it to the flow.
Keep moving.

Teams that roll their own auth always pay for it later.

Always.

This Is Part of Something Bigger

I call this Debtless Architecture.

Most people call their mess “tech debt.”
That’s polite bullshit.

What they really have is decision debt — systems glued together in ways that can’t change.

Debtless Architecture is different.

It’s building systems where:

• Auth can be swapped
• Payments can be swapped
• Shipping can be swapped
• Vendors can piss you off
• And the business doesn’t break

Auth just happens to be the first place everyone feels the pain.

The Mike Take

Anonymous checkout is fine.
Passwords are dead.

I’ve built this. I run this. I fix stacks that ignored it.

When auth is done right:
Friction disappears.
Contacts get captured without begging.
You know it’s the same damn person everywhere.

No resets.
No popups.
No guessing.

You don’t manage tech debt.
You stop creating it.

If you can’t swap a vendor without breaking the business, you don’t own your stack.

That’s what I build.
That’s what I clean up.

If this hit a nerve, good.
If you want an assist, reach out — I might be able to help.

Everything else is amateur hour.