Note that xID is made available for merchants only via the OpenID Connect Provider (OIDC) from BankID. Please consult technical documentation on the OIDC Provider in general and the xID service in particular for further information. 

These guidelines are made to:

• Ensure a consistent and better user experience of xID
• Make implementation of xID easy

If this is not the case, please let us know so we can improve the documentation.

Introducing xID

xID represents a new way of customer authentication. Customers that sign up for xID, will be able to use xID to authenticate themselves on xID-websites that require their identity in order to allow them to proceed. As such, corporations that implement xID will be able to offer their customers a significantly better online experience by removing the friction due to authentication and identification. This opens a number of possibilities for corporations seeking to enhance their online value offering. A few examples include:

• Frictionless login: xID is a safe and easy alternative to usernames and passwords. Using xID, customers can authenticate themselves and log in to their private online accounts by a single keystroke.
• Complete forms with a click: xID can be used to fill out forms whenever required, for example during the creation of a new customer account. Customers can now simply click on a button to fill in personal information, such as their name, address, phone number and email address provided from the value added service TINFO (Additional Information).
• Customised online offering: xID can be used to personalise online content. As xID customers are authenticated upon visiting the website, merchants can offer them value by showing them specific content.
• Personalised chat: xID can be used to improve the value of a chat support mechanism. When the customer is authenticated, the merchant may use the customer's identity (provided by xID) to retrieve information about that customer from their own databases (such as order history or support transcripts from earlier correspondence) and use this information to better meet the customer's needs.

As such, xID offers your customers great value in terms of a more fluent and personalised online experience. xID may yield several benefits for you as a merchant as well:

• Increased usage of online services: For websites that individual customers visit rarely, the authentication process (remembering and typing in username and password) is a great barrier for service utilisation.
• Increased customer insights: As the authentication process is both easy and safe, a larger part of customers will be authenticated whilst using the website. As such, merchants may enjoy more comprehensive and meaningful customer data that, in turn, may be used to enhance customer value.
• Personalised content
• Higher sales conversion: The authentication or login step of an online purchasing process is where many customers leave their baskets and never complete their purchase. With xID, customers can authenticate themselves easily and focus on their intended actions.