Tuesday, December 14, 2021
Why do you believe 2021 will be another record-breaking holiday season?
The hot topic of the moment is what pwc identified as 2021's 'golden quarter'—the shopping period from Halloween to Christmas and encompassing Black Friday and Cyber Monday—and whether it will live up to expectations of being another record-breaker. Right now, all signs point to yes, with Mastercard SpendingPulse,mstr.cd/3m0PvgL, anticipating holiday ecommerce sales to grow 7.5 percent year over year and 59.3 percent year over two years, with in-store sales also expected to see a rebound—growing 6.6 percent compared to 2020. Mastercard SpendingPulse measures overall online and in-store retail sales across all payment types.
How can merchants be vigilant about fraud that rises in tandem with transaction numbers?
Black Friday is no longer an in-store only affair. With the rise of ecommerce and Cyber Monday, and the continued preference of consumers for omnichannel shopping options across mobile and online, digital will be a key component. But more online transactions can also mean more fraud and chargebacks, with chargebacks expected to total $35 billion in 2021 alone and approximately 80 percent of them being the result of fraud, bit.ly/3dPzu8Z .
And a rise in chargebacks means that merchants will have to be more vigilant than ever in preventing them. The best option, of course, is to stop them before they happen altogether. One way to do that is by getting alerts that inform merchants in real time when a customer has disputed a card transaction, but before it becomes an official chargeback. This allows merchants to stop the order from shipping or cancel the service and issue a refund, effectively resolving the need for a chargeback in the first place.
What can merchants do about the complexity of omnichannel commerce?
It's not common for customers to do all their online shopping at a computer while at home. That's because options like mobile sites, apps, curbside pickup and click-and-collect have all evolved and become a more popular, and sometimes more convenient, shopping channel. This is now blurring the line between ecommerce and in-store purchases as many of them involve aspects of both. And this also adds a layer of complexity for merchants—both in terms of preventing fraud and thinking about their user experience from multiple angles.
Take for example curbside pickup, where the goods are collected in-person but were purchased online, or an order for a peppermint latte is placed in-store but through a mobile app. In these scenarios, although a portion of the transaction was face-to-face, it may still be considered a card-not-present transaction similar to an online purchase.
The benefit of digital and mobile payments is the ability to offer greater flexibility to customers in terms of how, when and where they shop. While security is baked into every transaction no matter how it's made, merchants should take note of how their customers are paying and align their fraud and digital experience strategies to account for an increase in omnichannel options.
What is transaction confusion and how can merchants address it?
We've all likely seen a transaction on our bank statements that we couldn't remember—a situation we often refer to as transaction confusion. It can sometimes lead to customers accidentally initiating a chargeback if they can't place where the charge came from, since they may mistake it for fraud.
It requires providing more information when and where customers are having these doubts—and this is often in banking channels like online or in-app bank statements or contact centers. In fact, an Aite Group study found that 73 percent of cardholders call the issuer first when they question a charge, with one in four dispute calls the result of confusion over statement descriptors, bit.ly/3pSnEjX.
With more people buying from ecommerce merchants than in previous years, this is likely to increase. Ninety-six percent of customers also say that they want more detailed transaction information available to provide increased clarity, bit.ly/3ILWC6w. A clear solution is providing customers with more detailed purchase information in trusted channels to help them better make sense of their purchase history. Luckily, merchants of all sizes can simply as a first step towards providing more clarity, logo.ethoca.com/ .
What will be key to merchants' ability to provide a safe shopping experience?
Regardless of how a customer shops, whether that's in-person, online or a mix of both, merchants must be prepared to provide a seamless experience no matter how customers interact with their business. This holiday season is shaping up to be another record breaker, so understanding the different ways customers are expecting to shop, and how that will impact fraud and the customer experience, will be key to keeping the holiday season merry and bright.
There's not a simple switch that merchants can turn on that will solve these problems at once, so they'll have to consider the challenges from all angles to understand the whole customer journey—and that includes beyond just the payment. 
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