By Jeff Hallenbeck, Head of Financial Partnerships
Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become a cornerstone for digital commerce, marking a critical period of revenue and relationship building for both retailers and consumers. Forter’s Trust Platform played a crucial role, processing and decisioning over $6 billion in gross merchandise value for over 36 million customers across 239 countries.
In 2023, there was also a significant shift in how leading retailers reduced friction and simultaneously enhanced customer experiences – frictionless 3DS.
The Role of 3DS
With over 30% of shoppers* between Black Friday and Cyber Monday being new to retailers, authenticating good consumers on the first try is critical in building trust – and 3DS is pivotal in making those decisions.
Traditionally, however, it has added friction – like requiring consumers to input a mobile code – and interrupted the consumer’s seamless shopping experience. And many retailers apply 3DS indiscriminately, causing unnecessary delays and frustration for good consumers and ultimately putting their lifetime value at risk.
Frictionless 3DS
Industry-leading retailers have learned that they can apply 3DS in a frictionless manner. By making the authentication process invisible to consumers with Forter’s Trust Platform, they can validate the consumer’s identity and protect their business from fraud losses without interrupting the shopping experience.
The rise of trusted authentication and data sharing has further transformed the frictionless 3DS process. This approach enables superior data sharing between retailers and issuers, ensuring all relevant data points are shared with the issuer prior to making a transaction, and resulting in more frictionless transactions with higher authorization rates – further enhancing the reliability of transaction accept/reject decisions.
Over Black Friday and Cyber Monday, retailers implemented frictionless 3DS over 20% more often than in 2022 – creating a better shopping experience and fostering the trust consumers crave.
Looking Forward
As we reflect on the impact of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it’s clear that the future of digital commerce lies in the balance of security and convenience. By seamlessly integrating sophisticated security measures like frictionless 3DS, retailers have enhanced customer trust, improved transaction approval rates and provided a smoother experience for good customers.
This evolution in digital commerce, marked by a significant decrease in friction and an increase in efficiency, demonstrates the key to thriving in a competitive landscape – continuously innovating while keeping the customer experience at the forefront. And moving forward, the lessons learned promise to reshape how retailers approach customer authentication and fraud prevention, leading to more secure, efficient and enjoyable experiences for good customers worldwide.
*Based on Forter’s first-party data
