Something you might not realize is that as your sales grow, so does the amount of fraud on your site. This statistic has surprisingly increased in the last year from 1.32% to 1.47%.
Don’t let the numbers scare you though. There are plenty of ways to keep an eye out for fraudulent behavior on your website.
How to prevent fraud:
- Don’t allow people to ship to any address besides the billing address. If you prefer not to do this, you can at least flag those orders as possible red flags and investigate them further.
- Hold first time orders for manual review.
- Require the security code (CCV/CVV number) on the back of the card.
- Manually review high volume orders.
- Identify users that have multiple accounts that are all created from the same IP address.
- Pay attention to accounts that have several different credit cards associated with them.
Do you have any fraud protection in place?
Services like Sift Science & Stripe Radar offer your online store a layer of fraud prevention.
Remember, fraud can happen both ways. As much as you want to protect your business from it, keep in mind that your customers want to feel protection, too. Consider adding some messaging into your checkout form that communicates why you need a particular piece of personal information. For instance, if you request their phone number, they may wonder why and feel resistant. All you would need to do is add some verbiage to that question that tells them why.
Phone number (for shipping-related questions):
You might know that you’re one of the good guys, but you still need to assure your customers of that. It’s been proven that 1 in 7 people have experienced trouble while shopping online. About 2/3rd of people who haven’t experienced trouble have admitted to worrying about unauthorized access to their personal information.
Trust is a two way street when dealing with an online store.
Without the face to face contact, it’s only natural to feel a bit wary of who you’re doing business with on either end.
Adding SSL certificates and trust seals will help increase conversion rates. People are more likely to buy from a website they can verify and trust.