Today’s consumers expect online retailers to provide friction-free shopping experiences. Unfortunately, many cannot reliably offer these experiences because they use legacy fraud prevention systems.
These systems typically rely on rules and manual reviews to weed out potentially risky transactions. But a manual review adds an unwanted delay before order fulfillment and shipment. And if you offer a narrow delivery window, a manual review could break that promise, further damaging the already negative customer experience.
Fraudology’s 2023 Benchmarking Report
In the 2023 Fraud Benchmarking Report, Fraudology surveyed various roles managing fraud, payments and abuse, asking them about their processes — and the feedback delivered some interesting results:
- 42% of survey respondents said it takes 5-10 minutes to review a transaction manually, and 18% said manual reviews can take up to an hour.
- 33% of respondents have a manual review rate of 5% or higher, with 11% having a manual review rate of 20% or higher.
Imagine having a manual review process that takes an hour or more. Even if you have a manual review rate at the lower end, your backlog will rise quickly. And the delay in releasing these flagged orders for fulfillment and shipment will grow along with the backlog.
The bottom line is that you can’t ensure a fast and convenient shopping experience for every customer when a significant percentage of them will get flagged for manual review.
Manual reviews conflict with shopper expectations
Consumers expect retailers to make online orders available for delivery or pickup fast — and although fast can have different meanings for different products and services, the reality is that the speed of fulfillment has become a vital piece of the customer experience.
- According to a Fabric study, 61% of consumers expect retailers to provide free next-day shipping when they place an order totaling $40.00 or more, and 52% expect free same-day shipping for that order.
- A recent X Delivery report found that 17% of consumers surveyed said they stopped shopping on a brand’s or retailer’s website because of slow delivery experiences. 26% have abandoned their cart because the retailer didn’t offer same-day delivery or pick up in store, and they needed the items immediately.
- A Circuit On-Demand Delivery study found that 44% of Americans are willing to pay more than $10.00 for same-day delivery for retail products.
Most customers expect retailers to deliver online orders quickly. And while some customers may tolerate the occasional late online order, others find delivery delays incredibly irritating, eroding any trust previously built by the retailer.
Manual reviews are roadblocks to faster delivery options
Some retail industries, like grocery and food delivery, have consumers who experience greater frustration when online orders arrive later than promised.
Imagine you’ve placed an online order for a whole family meal from your favorite restaurant. But your order arrived hours later because the fraud system sent the transaction for manual review. Hungry customers tend to react less kindly to late deliveries, meaning businesses that provide ready-to-eat meals must deliver them promptly.
- 34% of Americans expect delivery of hot/ready-to-eat meals within 30 minutes, per a Circuit study. While the survey found that only 8% of Americans expect 30-minute delivery for groceries, that number is likely to rise as more grocers offer this delivery option.
Not all consumers require super-fast delivery for online orders, but many retailers offer it to gain a competitive advantage. And manual reviews create a time-consuming roadblock to providing a fast and enjoyable online ordering experience. You need to eliminate manual reviews, replacing them with a fully automated system that makes accurate fraud decisions in real-time.
Effectively fighting fraud in real-time
Manual reviews in fraud prevention systems have become an obstacle in meeting modern consumers’ expectations of swift order fulfillment and delivery. Relying heavily on such reviews delays orders and is less effective against adept fraudsters who can bypass preprogrammed rules.
To address this challenge, retailers should integrate real-time fraud prevention solutions. Forter’s Trust Platform swiftly assesses trust, has a deep understanding of customer identities, and bolsters their defenses by leveraging collaborative insights from a vast network of global brands.