Throughout 2021, we’ve seen ecommerce continue to grow, but we also saw a blurring of the lines between in-store and what we think of as ‘traditional’ online shopping, which will change the way businesses look at customer experience (CX) and fraud strategies throughout 2022.
Click-and-collect, curbside pick-up, QR code payments and even mobile ordering apps have opened the door to more hybrid shopping journeys, where purchases are facilitated by both ecommerce channels and in-person interactions. These options grew out of necessity during the pandemic, but they aren’t likely to go away – with 68% of consumers more likely to prefer brands that offer convenient and easy digital experiences.
Fraud and CX go hand in hand
As the lines between what is online and in-store blur, so do the strategies for improving CX and preventing fraud. The shopping journey now routinely involves multiple touchpoints, requiring businesses to consider how these may impact both the digital experience and downstream fraud and chargeback processes.
Dispute prevention and digital experience principles don’t just apply to the online store anymore. The CX should be consistent and streamlined no matter how (or where) it takes place – take for example a curbside order placed on a mobile phone, then picked up in-store a few hours later. Best practices from ecommerce and in-store shopping need to be leveraged to make sure the transaction is secure, easy and seamless.
Clearing the way for transaction clarity
This shift is also highlighting how a merchant’s relationship with a customer doesn’t end once payment is completed. In fact, the post-transaction stage is a huge opportunity for businesses to interact with their customers, and also a key point in the process to resolve any issues that might traditionally result in a chargeback.
And with more transactions happening in a hybrid environment, consumers are having a hard time recognising their purchases on their digital bank statements. 77% of consumers report that they’re often unable to recognise transactions in their online statements. Sharing clear purchase details with financial institutions for use in their digital channels, like clear merchant names, logos and even full digital receipts, can help reduce that confusion that leads to friendly fraud – where purchases are claimed as fraud simply because the customer fails to recognise them.
What will 2022 bring?
In short: we’ll see fraud and experience strategies become more interwoven. A lot of the technology underpinning this involves collaborative tools that help share key information between merchants and issuers. By providing rich purchase details to customers at the point they have questions, it helps build a better experience, while also reducing the potential for friendly fraud chargebacks.
The same technology can also help merchants respond to disputes before they become a chargeback, regardless of why or where they are originating from. If a purchase is disputed by a customer, issuers can alert merchants in near real time for them to respond to it directly. This normally involves stopping an order or service and refunding the purchase, effectively preventing the need for a chargeback altogether.
One thing we know for sure is the way we pay and shop will continually change. The best way to stay ahead of the curve is to leverage strategies that are multi-purpose and help create better customer interactions, while also keeping security and chargeback prevention high.
About the author
Jason Howard is Executive Vice President, Ethoca.
Jason is responsible for the overall strategy and leadership of Ethoca, working across the business to further drive Ethoca’s leading collaborative technologies that aim to minimize chargebacks, friendly fraud and build better digital customer experiences.
Having joined Ethoca in 2013, Jason has over 15 years of experience with high-growth organizations from the fraud and payments industry. Prior to joining Ethoca, Jason led sales for a U.S. healthcare payments start-up Tango-Health and data breach remediation company AllClearID. Additionally, Jason spent six years at JPMorgan Chase where he had responsibility for expanding its commercial credit card business.
Jason is a proud Longhorn from the University of Texas in Austin.
About Ethoca
Ethoca is an award-winning provider of collaboration-based intelligence and technology solutions that empower businesses around the world to fight fraud, prevent disputes and improve the customer experience. Powered by the ever-growing Ethoca Network, our solutions provide rich intelligence throughout the customer purchase journey and close costly communication gaps between all stakeholders in the payments ecosystem. These include thousands of the world’s biggest ecommerce brands, the largest banks, service providers and consumers. For the first time, fraud, customer dispute and purchase insights are now available and actionable in real time – delivering significant revenue growth and cost saving opportunities for all. Ethoca was acquired by Mastercard in April 2019.
To learn more, please visit www.ethoca.com
