Rafael Lourenco

Much like the year that preceded it, 2021’s holiday season looks to be unprecedented for online shopping. Unemployment is low and government economic stimulus checks are helping to give consumers the confidence needed to do a little extra spending on their friends and families this year. At the same time, supply chain issues are real and concerns about inflation loom, driving many buyers to get their shopping in as early as possible.

eCommerce fraud has been increasing and continues to be on the rise. Projected losses from credit card fraud are expected to reach nearly $50 billion by 2025.

Merchants new to eCommerce may be aware of eCommerce fraud but aren’t familiar with how it works or most importantly, how to protect themselves and their customers. The most important step a merchant should take to combat eCommerce fraud is to gain an understanding of what it is and how it can impact their business.

One of the greatest challenges you face as an online retailer isn’t losing money to fraudsters. It’s losing money when legitimate customer transactions are incorrectly flagged as fraudulent and declined.

In fact, according to Riskified, a whopping 35% ­- 80% of declined orders are legitimate. To clarify, these are transactions that may, on the surface, appear to be fraudulent, but are actually real orders placed by good customers.

These false declines, also called false positives, hurt online[...]