Q> How do I optimize omni-channel for the busy holiday selling season?

US online retail sales are projected to reach $334 billion this year according to Forrester and that will increase to $480 billion by 2019.[1] The mobile channel is a strong contributor to this growth: It made up more than 50% of the investment in mobile internet over the last year and is predicted to total almost 75% of all investments into mobile by 2018.[2] But consumers are not tied to one method of shopping; in fact, the use of multiple channels to make a purchase continues to grow. Consumers have been increasingly using showrooming – reviewing products at the brick-and-mortar store before purchasing online. Webrooming – where customers review products online before heading to a brick-and-mortar store to make the actual purchase – is a new growing trend, too. As we move into the holiday season, it’s important that merchants implement an omni-channel strategy that makes it as easy and safe as possible for consumers to make a purchase via their preferred channel(s).
This month, we compiled insight from industry leaders on how to protect and optimize payments across all channels as we move into the busiest selling season of the year.
Here is what the experts are saying:

• Get omni-channel savvy. Help your customers move seamlessly between in-store and online. Some consumers prefer to purchase online and then pick-up in-store; make that a convenient experience for them. Price-matching in-store to meet or beat online offers can be beneficial, too. Consumers are always looking for the best deals, especially during the holidays. E-tailers can often have the upper hand unless brick-and-mortar stores step up and get in the game.

• Know your vertical. Many merchants have expressed concern about showrooming, fearing that customers will evaluate products at their store and then make the actual purchase online from a discount competitor. This is proving to not necessarily be the case…depending on the industry. PayPal surveyed consumers on shopping habits across six core verticals and the results varied. Knowing how consumers are shopping for your product/service can help you build your strategy without reacting incorrectly based on hearsay and hype.

• Dig into the data to protect omni-channel. Merchants should view omni-channel fraud as a data problem. Consolidating data across fulfillment channels can not only streamline fulfillment but help merchants determine the best fraud prevention tools to use on the appropriate channels. It’s common for merchants to feel like they are one step behind fraudsters, but collecting and analyzing data can actually help them stay two steps ahead.

• Get agile to prevent fraud and boost legitimate sales. While merchants are competing to quickly stop omni-channel fraud,  the majority of merchants are still nervous about the blurring of card-present and card-not-present transactions. Many believe that omni-channel retail makes them more vulnerable to fraud attacks. As the digital and physical worlds continue to collide and converge, there are steps merchants can take to mitigate omni-channel risks without hurting conversions. The key is implementing intelligent tools and solutions that span across channels that are user friendly and can be tested and toggled to remain agile as well as adaptive to emerging threats.

With the peak selling season quickly approaching, it’s important for merchants to get a solid omni-channel strategy in place to ensure that payments are protected across channels and to streamline and optimize the shopping experience. Surveys show 90% of retailers offer multiple service and purchasing channels to customers but only 35% believe they have adequate fraud management tools for effective fraud detection and prevention. Optimizing omni-channel without implementing a comprehensive fraud prevention strategy supported by an agile payment processing platform is a fruitless endeavor.
Verifi’s flexible, global payment processing platform can help you streamline and secure your payment processing across all channels. Our processor-agnostic “Super Gateway” offers the stability of a best-in-breed processing platform that is agile enough to evolve alongside tomorrow’s emerging threats. The Gateway plugs in with our fraud prevention tools to provide a frictionless, end-to-end experience. The Gateway works seamlessly with Verifi’s Intelligence® Suite, ensuring that you can consolidate your fraud prevention efforts through one integration with global control over all tools so you can test and toggle for each channel. Additionally, our Cardholder Dispute Resolution Network™ (CDRN) and Chargeback Representment (CBR) help protect your payments from expensive chargebacks across the entire transaction lifecycle. The “Super Gateway” provides omni-channel, end-to-end payment protection with customizable fraud tools, Total Chargeback Management and the ability to improve authorizations by up to 20%.
Don’t forget to download our updated ebook: What Every Card Not Present Merchant Should Know: Navigating Today’s Challenging Payment Ecosystem? Get it now!
Contact us to find out how to streamline and protect omni-channel payments from end-to-end during the peak selling season. What are your thoughts? Ping us on twitter (@verifi) with #paymentstips and let us know what you think.
[1] https://images.internetretailer.com/IR/Collections/090315_Norton_FestiveGoldRush.PDF
[2] https://www.fierceretail.com/mobileretail/story/m-commerce-driving-rapid-mobile-internet-growth/2015-05-26

Q> How do I protect my payments and data in the era of high profile data breaches?

Data breaches are no joke. The damage extends to both customers and merchants in a variety of ways. The most obvious victims of a data breach are the customers who have their personal information stolen. These individuals are at risk for identity theft, which affected almost 13 million U.S. consumers last year, according to the 2015 Identity Fraud Study by Javelin Strategy & Research.[1] Merchants also – and especially – suffer, both in the direct and instantaneous fraud ramifications of a breach as well as from the long-lasting impacts. Breaches contribute to consumer fears about identity theft. Consumers consistently report avoiding merchants that have been breached, fearing they will become victims of identity theft. That can significantly impact a merchant’s bottom line for months or even years down the line.
This month, we compiled insight from industry leaders on how to protect payments and data even amidst some of the most infamous data breaches of all time.
Here is what the experts are saying:
Institute end user security awareness.  End user security awareness training can often be an overlooked aspect to a comprehensive fraud prevention and security strategy. This is unfortunate since this type of training can evolve the company culture to become more security minded, help eliminate costly security mistakes that can lead to a breach and raise awareness of peculiar behavior that may signal fraudsters or malicious insiders.
 
Get outside help to monitor risk and exposure. Retaining a neutral third-party vendor to evaluate your risk can provide a clear picture of where your organization is vulnerable. By knowing where risk exists, organizations can formulate and implement a comprehensive incident response plan in case of an incident. Research shows that this type of plan can effectively lower the average cost of a breach by $17 per record.
 
Don’t assume you’re protected. Two of the biggest misunderstandings when it comes to breaches are 1) that the government covers business bank accounts if they are hacked, and 2) that general liability insurance covers the consequences of a data breach. Neither of these is true since Federal regulations only protection personal accounts from fraud and general liability doesn’t cover losses due to third-party providers or breaches. Merchants’ best bet is to have a “security first” mentality and to leave behind unfounded assumptions that they are protected from the repercussions of a breach.
 
Implement Layered Fraud Prevention. Breaches are expensive in their own right, but the downstream impacts of chargebacks can be costly, too. Merchants should focus on end-to-end protection of data that doesn’t restrict sales. It’s smart to have strong fraud defense strategies in place…But it’s also costly to be too restrictive. Misplaced or rigid fraud measures create “false positives” and lengthy manual review processes that drain resources and create unnecessary friction in the checkout process. Merchants should use a variety of tools that address multiple areas of vulnerability, including AVS, CVV2, pattern-based intelligence, biometrics and total chargeback management solutions.
Data breaches are not a thing of the past. New ones happen every day and the best thing a merchant can do is to put security first. It’s better to be safe than sorry, especially when consumers report avoiding merchants that have suffered a breach. Don’t be the next data breach victim – secure your payments process from end to end and implement total chargeback management to ensure that your protected against the downstream impacts (chargebacks) of other breaches that happen.
Verifi’s flexible, global payment processing platform can help you streamline and secure your payment processing. Our processor-agnostic “Super Gateway” offers the stability of a best-in-breed processing platform that is agile enough to evolve alongside tomorrow’s emerging threats. The Gateway plugs in with our fraud prevention tools to provide a frictionless, end-to-end experience. The Gateway works seamlessly with Verifi’s Intelligence® Suite, Cardholder Dispute Resolution Network™ (CDRN) and Chargeback Representment  to protect your payments across the entire transaction lifecycle. The “Super Gateway” provides omni-channel, end-to-end payment protection with customizable fraud tools, Total Chargeback Management and the ability to improve authorizations by up to 20%.
Don’t forget to download our updated ebook: What Every Card Not Present Merchant Should Know: Navigating Today’s Challenging Payment Ecosystem? Get it now!
Contact us to find out how to secure your payment from end-to-end and guard against data breaches. What are your thoughts? Ping us on twitter (@verifi) with #paymentstips and let us know what you think.
[1] https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/identity-theft-and-cybercrime

Q> What impact will the Internet of Things have on data and vice versa?

The collection and dissemination of data will be revolutionized by the Internet of Things. As everyday objects (like thermostats and billboards) in addition to smartphones and tablets begin to communicate more frequently, data will be buzzing around endlessly. This can be great news for merchants who use emerging technology to collect and analyze data and personalize offers and communications. It can also pose a threat for those who have not found a layered, agile way to secure data from end-to-end as technology and fraudsters evolve.
This month, we compiled insight from industry leaders on how to collect, protect and analyze data within the context of IoT.
Here is what the experts are saying:

• Beacon technology makes personalization a snap. Beacon technology, which operates in the background to locate and track a user’s location, can be used by merchants to offer hyper-personalized communications and offers to consumers. This is a boon for merchants, who can be opportunistic in terms of how and when they are used to target consumers as shelves and store displays become personal and interactive. These tools present unique opportunities to be more sophisticated in marketing efforts.

• Things are getting smarter. Big Data and the Internet of Things will make everyday living easier – and more efficient. As companies produce more ”smart devices” that use connected data systems to learn our preferences and automate processes accordingly, everyday objects will become more intelligent and companies will gain a wealth of global knowledge about energy use across communities. The other side of the coin is that this creates privacy issues as data becomes more personal, including information about consumers own homes. How companies respond to these privacy issues will be a fundamental to adoption and the expansion of the IoT.

• Biometrics up the marketing game. Consumers adapted to companies collecting data about them long ago. This was because the collection of data was part of a value exchange – in return for giving up this information, consumers receive better customer service, faster delivery and better offers. The difference with the Internet of Things is that its no longer people at companies collecting information, but machines. This raises numerous privacy and security issues as almost anything and everything can garner data on who you are, what you do, what you like and where you are. Only time will tell how sensitive consumers will be to this type of data collection; however some things are certain. It’s likely that regulators will get involved to create standards for this type of data collection. Security standards will evolve accordingly. Privacy – and how companies prevent compromising it – will also evolve.

• Big data facilitates personalization. The data collection possibilities of IoT are seemingly endless. When harnessed with appropriate and powerful technology, this data positions merchants and card brands alike to make major gains and non-cash transactions boom, providing rich access to data. ^[1] These payments provide a peak into consumer preferences, search histories and other data, which merchants can use to personalize each experience and touch point for each customer.

The Internet of Things will continue to evolve and the things that can potentially collect data will become greater in number. As this data proliferates, merchants will need to ensure that they remain compliant and secure but also agile enough to properly analyze the data and make it actionable. Security and privacy issues will abound and merchants will need to ensure that transaction data remains secure from end-to-end. This data will become instrumental in providing personalized, targeted offers that can boost the bottom line.
Verifi’s flexible, global payment processing platform can help you streamline and secure your payment processing. Our processor-agnostic “Super Gateway” offers the stability of a best-in-breed processing platform that is agile enough to evolve alongside tomorrow’s emerging threats. The Gateway plugs in with our fraud prevention tools to provide a frictionless, end-to-end experience. The Gateway works seamlessly with Verifi’s Intelligence® Suite, Cardholder Dispute Resolution Network™ (CDRN) and Chargeback Representment (CBR) to protect your payments across the entire transaction lifecycle. The Gateway also integrates with Decline Salvage to ensure that you don’t lose your loyal customers to unnecessary declines. The “Super Gateway” provides omni-channel, end-to-end payment protection with customizable fraud tools, Total Chargeback Management and the ability to improve authorizations by up to 20%.
One last note – Have you downloaded our updated ebook: What Every Card Not Present Merchant Should Know: Navigating Today’s Challenging Payment Ecosystem? Get it now!
Contact us to find out how to secure your payment from end-to-end while maintaining a superior customer experience. What are your thoughts? Ping us on twitter (@verifi) with #paymentstips and let us know what you think.
[1] https://www.yaleeconomicreview.org/archives/2204

BRANDING: #PaymentsTips
Each month, we’ll help you navigate the emerging trends and forecasts for card-not-present (CNP) merchants with (what we think) are the best pieces of advice from Verifi, as well as from across the web. We promise to keep this newsletter short and sweet, so let’s get started!
Q> The holiday sales season is quickly approaching and on top of that, the EMV liability shift has taken place. What steps do I need to take to ensure that my payments are protected through all these major industry events and as we move into this period of increased holiday fraud risk?

It’s October, which means many merchants are scrambling to prepare for the busy holiday season. Sales and mobile and fraudsters…oh my! Aside from choosing which promotions to run and how to boost sales, merchants should be thinking about a comprehensive, omni-channel fraud and risk mitigation strategy that will protect their payments from opportunistic cybercriminals waiting to pounce on unsuspecting victims. This October is also compounded by the EMV liability shift. It came, it went and now merchants must deal with the fallout. CNP fraud will begin to increase as fraudsters move to the more vulnerable online channel. For merchants who haven’t adopted the EMV standard, there is much at risk. We’ll outline the major things to be aware of regarding EMV as well as what you can do to protect your payments and continue to boost profits amidst holiday fraud risk.

EMV IS HERE. WHAT NOW?
October 1 was the official date of the EMV liability shift, which many merchants weren’t even aware of. The merchants that were aware and updated POS hardware and software to become NFC-capable have a little less to worry about. But not all risk is gone especially for CNP merchants. The Aite Group predicts EMV will cause CNP fraud to more than double in the next 3 years to $6.3 billion. Javelin confirms this prediction and says that this forecast is not dependent on EMV adoption. So what is left to be done? For one, merchants should ensure they have a layered, comprehensive fraud strategy in place to mitigate online fraud via various channels. Also, Finally, take a look at how different transaction scenarios may impact your business now that the liability shift has occurred. 

MOBILE: CRIMINAL MAGNET?
According to a recent ThreatMetrix report, growing mobile popularity is making it an increasingly appealing channel for cybercriminals looking to steal payment information. Spoofing is the most popular method for these bad actors, who impersonate a mobile device to unlawfully collect sensitive data.
CNP fraud overall is predicted to more than double in the next three years and mobile in particular will be a vulnerable channel. Merchants should ensure they are aware of all the channel risks and develop a comprehensive fraud prevention strategy that accounts for and integrates with all channels.
Need more reasons to look into mobile fraud and risk mitigation? Take a look at these convincing stats:

• M-commerce fraud costs retailers, on average, 3% of total revenue
• A study of 250 organizations averaging $2.54 billion in revenue reported average annual losses attributed to m-commerce fraud that equaled $92.3 million
• The average mobile fraud rate for large companies is 10 to 24 percent

CHRISTMAS IN JULY (NO, REALLY)
It’s no secret that holiday promotions are starting this month. In fact, most started in earnest last month and some even started as early as July. In fact, 20% of U.S. retailers reported that they would begin holiday promotions earlier than they did last year.  Amazon’s “Black Friday in July” promotion this year aka “Prime Day” kicked off this type of holiday promotion earlier this year, even though most reported it was a flop.
Despite that seeming omen, predictions are in for holiday retail 2015 and things look good. Why? Unemployment in August was the lowest it’s been since 2008 and jobless claims are low, boosting consumer confidence and discretionary spending power.  With a forecast like this, it’s no surprise most e-retailers plan to get out ahead of things in 2015. Other key findings to note about the holidays:

• Three quarters of retailers says at least 20% of their sales come during the holidays
• The vast majority – more than 80 percent – of retailers expect 2015 holiday sales will increase over 2014.
• 34% of retailers say on-time order fulfillment is the biggest holiday challenge, followed by adjusting to competitor activity (27%) and mobile traffic conversion (19%)

PREPARING FOR THE HOLIDAY FRAUD RUSH
While forecasts call for healthy online sales this holiday sales season, it’s no surprise that holiday fraud risk will be lurking right behind. While most merchants will want to expend time and resources on customer service as opposed to manually reviewing orders for fraud this holiday sales season, this requires having a comprehensive fraud prevention strategy in place.  There are several things merchants can do to prepare ahead of time for the influx of fraudulent activity that will undoubtedly occur during retail’s busiest season. Additionally, merchants should pay special attention to their total chargeback management strategy. Chargebacks shouldn’t be considered a “cost of doing business” and there are ways to fight the Chargeback Grinch and hold on to holiday profits. When it comes to fraud prevention during the holidays – and all year – layer, layer, layer.
 
PARTING WORDS
We’re headed full steam during the busy holiday sales season and it’s important to bolster your fraud prevention strategy now to prevent crashing and burning later. The impacts of EMV will begin to unfold for both CP and CNP merchants, and remember – it’s not too late to become EMV-capable. Mobile will continue to boost sales and fraudsters will continue to find ways to exploit the channel. Omni-channel fraud prevention is critical to protect your profits across the board. Finally, get ready for a booming holiday sales season. While predictions look promising for merchants’ bottom lines, they look just as promising to bad actors that will seek to skim those profits through illegal and shrewd schemes. Guard your payments!
Don’t forget…you can now download our updated ebook: What Every Card Not Present Merchant Should Know: Navigating Today’s Challenging Payment Ecosystem? Get it now!
What are your thoughts? Ping us on Twitter (@verifi) with #paymentstips and let us know what you think.

Can you reduce your chargeback ratio without reducing sales? Can you fight PayPal disputes? These are just a few of the questions Rick Lynch, our senior vice president of business development, clears up in his recent blog post for the Electronic Retailing Association (ERA).
His “Chargebacks: Myths vs. Reality”, blog helps clarify what the actual truths are when it comes to chargeback prevention. Obviously there are probably a million more, but these are some of the bigger questions that he answers.
If you are could use a primer or refresher when it comes to chargebacks, we suggest you give the blog a read.  If you’d like to learn more about chargeback prevention, Verifi can help as well. We can educate you on the type of system that fits your specific needs – all while providing the accuracy, innovation and quality needed to help you manage the growing chargeback problem.
https://blog.retailing.org/chargebacks-myths-vs.-reality