Drop-off

Where and why users abandon the flow.

Someone starts verification, reaches the selfie step, gets frustrated, and closes the app. That departure is drop-off.

Step-level attrition within a verification session, attributable to friction, latency, or capture failure. Attrition is the loss of users from one step to the next, friction is anything that makes a step harder, latency is waiting time, and capture failure is when the camera step does not work.

Teams measure drop-off step by step:

1. They list the steps in the flow, such as start, document capture, selfie, and result.
2. They count how many people reach each step.
3. They compare each step with the one before to find where the biggest losses occur.

The causes tend to fall into a few groups:

• Friction, such as too many steps or confusing instructions.
• Latency, such as slow uploads or slow decisions.
• Capture problems, such as repeated image rejections from glare or blur.
• Trust concerns, such as unclear reasons for asking for sensitive data.
• Device and connection issues, such as old phones or weak signals.

Fixes follow from the cause. Teams improve capture guidance, speed up responses, cut unneeded steps, and explain clearly why each step is needed.

Drop-off sits next to terms that are easy to mix up:

• Conversion rate is the overall share who finish, while drop-off locates where people leave.
• Active liveness is a step that can raise drop-off, since it asks the user to perform actions.
• Onboarding is the flow that drop-off is measured across.