In the spirit of International Fraud Awareness Week during November 2022, Doriel Abrahams, head of analytics at Forter, has explained to Digital Journal that organizations can prevent fraud and improve the customer journey in our current economic climate. The focus is on U.S. businesses.
Abrahams assesses that individuals today are spending about 8 percent more on necessary items and services like food, rent, and energy compared to 2021. As prices rise, so does the caution of consumers.
In addition, when more money is spent on essentials, disposable income and spending patterns are re-examined. Ultimately, people are going to become choosier about who they will do business with, which means retailers must make the most of every opportunity to gather new customers in a world of choices.
Abrahams addresses the current economic climate, how it will influence consumer behaviour, and what organizations can do to protect against fraud and improve customer relationships during the busiest shopping season of the year.
Abrahams continues to assess the common fraud patterns during the holiday shopping season and how organizations can protect themselves against fraud all year long.
Here Abrahams notes: “Compared to 2021, individuals today are spending about 8% more on necessary items and services like food, rent and energy. While a hard truth to face, consumers have proven resilient by stretching their dollar and being more selective with the brands they trust.”
From this position, learning is important: “Understanding this, it’s important to understand that International Fraud Awareness Week is now just as much about who retailers grant access to, as it is about who to exclude.”
In the U.S., the situation is likely to be challenging says Abrahams: “Consumers are going to be scrupulous this holiday season, but are still excited to shop after a near-three-year celebration hiatus. Online retailers can’t afford to leave money on the table by denying new, legitimate customers and solely focusing on existing clientele. Our research shows that about 40 percent of customers will shop with a competitor when falsely declined for a purchase, and merchants can lose up to 75x more revenue to false declines than they do to fraud.”
There are more things to consider as well, says Abrahams: “With machine-learning-based solutions to protect the bottom line against fraud, merchants can focus on other areas to create an even smoother customer journey and foster trust during the current economic climate.”
