How to Eliminate Your Brand Experience Blind Spot

The digital era is transforming how the fashion industry interacts with consumers. At the same time, mobile devices and social networks are also causing a reciprocal shift in the ways people interact and engage with the fashion brands they love.

The rapid migration of fashion consumption to digital channels exemplifies this transformation. But while the worldwide explosion of eCommerce presents huge domestic and cross-border opportunities for retailers in the fashion industry, it also means that retailers must adapt to overcome new challenges.

One of the core challenges fashion retailers face is maintaining the best possible shopping experience for consumers while avoiding fraud.

Fraud Management and the Consumer Experience

Fashion retailers invest significant funds, effort, and time meticulously ensuring that the online customer experience aligns with the brand’s in-store vision. However, it’s common for fashion retailers to turn to antiquated rules-based fraud management systems that negatively impact consumers’ shopping experience.

Such systems can lead to long wait times for order approvals, invasive requests for more information from customers following checkout, or even perfectly legitimate orders to be labeled as fraudulent - resulting in good customers being turned away. The thought that the entire brand experience could be compromised due to friction or wrongful rejection caused by fraud prevention measures should give retailers pause.

Selling Confidently In Emerging Markets

The fact that retailers reject so many legitimate orders only adds to the sense of urgency about managing online fraud properly. A recent report by the Javelin Strategy Group showed that $118 billion worth of legitimate orders were turned away by US retailers in 2014, while only $9 billion was lost to fraud. These “false declines” are often the result of retailers’ reliance on incomplete or incorrect information to inform their fraud management process.

Cross-border shoppers are especially vulnerable to having their purchases wrongly labeled fraudulent, due to the greater scrutiny with which retailers often treat markets they are unfamiliar with. Yet many of these same markets present huge opportunities for fashion retailers. One example is the Chinese market, where 43% of cross-border shoppers purchased apparel & accessories in 2015.

Despite the presence of this strong demand, a recent report on fraud in the fashion industry showed that orders for fashion merchandise placed with Chinese credit cards are still significantly safer than commonly believed. Luxury fashion purchases are especially safe - over 98% of purchase made with Chinese cards are legitimate. Seeing data such as this might come as a surprise (and relief) to many in the industry who are currently needlessly hesitant to expand into overseas markets.

This is why it is critical for retailers to have the expertise of dedicated fraud management companies working for them in these key, emerging markets such as China.

Focusing on Business, Not Fraud

Various solutions have emerged to meet the need for an ‘invisible’ fraud review process. One such solution is provided by Riskified - a fraud management tech company based in the cybersecurity capital of the world, Tel Aviv - that already counts luxury fashion retailers like FarFetch, Ssense, and Vestiaire Collective as clients.

The company uses powerful algorithms and behavioral analytics to accurately detect fraud while keeping the process completely invisible to the consumer. But the ability to provide retailers with peace of mind while selling online - Riskified reimburses retailers for the full value on any order it approves that turns out to be fraud - is just one facet of its value to the fashion industry.

Ultimately, harnessing the knowledge and expertise of fraud management experts allows retailers to focus on their core goals - of growing the business and providing shoppers with a great experience. Every retailer has unique needs and goals, and partnering with a company that provides flexible online fraud management is essential.

For example, Ssense and FarFetch partnered with Riskified to avoid rejecting good customers and to recoup revenue from orders they had planned to decline. Vestiaire Collective and Kirna Zabête, however, rely on Riskified to improve the shopping experience with quick turnaround times and higher approval rates.

Get the Most Out of Your Online Store

There is no reason fashion retailers selling online should feel overwhelmed by fraud. It’s possible to simultaneously protect your business from fraud and ensure there is no negative impact on your customers’ online experience.

To gain more insight into how to protect your fashion business while increasing revenue, check out this infographic breaking down the fraud trends and patterns specific to the fashion industry.