Verifying Online Shopper Data Reduces False Declines

When poor identification practices fail to verify shoppers’ identities adequately, retailers decline online purchases to reduce fraud exposure leaving merchants wondering – “How much revenue was lost because good shoppers were turned away?”

For online retailers, false declines are especially problematic in an environment where demanding customers with high expectations are not afraid to take their business elsewhere. A high false decline rate puts customer sentiment and loyalty at risk. An Experian report found that four in ten U.S. businesses lost more than 10% of their customers in 2021 due to unsatisfying customer experiences.

False Declines Unique to Online Purchases

False declines are unique to the online environment because many of the security features that assure the legitimacy of a purchase are physically embedded in the payment card, most notably the small, square computer chip known as the EMV chip.

The EMV chip’s protections cannot be leveraged during an online transaction. Without the protections, merchants are forced to take on more of the fraud risks associated with the transaction.

Verifying Shopper Identity is Key

How do online retailers provide customers with the personal, frictionless, easy-payment experience consumers demand, while mitigating as much risk as possible? The solution to this problem requires a better approach to verifying shopper identities while increasing both conversion rates and revenue.

Retailers can more precisely and efficiently validate a shopper’s identity using a solution that combines identity verification technology with payment card information. By incorporating additional data that can link names, addresses and other identity markers to a shopper’s credit card, retailers can increase approval rates and mitigate risk by obtaining a more complete view of a shopper’s identity.