Global eCommerce Retail Sales Up 209 Percent in April, ACI Worldwide Research Reveals
May 12 2020 - 1:00AM
Business Wire
Home office equipment, gaming and digital
entertainment are among the sectors that continue to experience
growth
The COVID-19 crisis continued to drive global eCommerce sales in
April, with the general retail sector experiencing 209 percent
growth compared to the same period last year, according to an
analysis by ACI Worldwide of hundreds of millions of eCommerce
transactions from global online retailers. Following general
retail, the gaming segment saw the biggest bump, up 126 percent in
April.
The sustained increase in eCommerce transaction volume reflects
a full month of wide-ranging restrictions on in-store retail
activity and other COVID-19-related measures, evidenced by average
transaction volume growth of 23.5 percent in April versus the same
period last year. By comparison, there was a 5.3 percent increase
in March 2020, when lockdowns first came into effect.
“Trends in eCommerce purchasing behaviors that we began to see
in March have continued in April, as hundreds of millions of
consumers around the world adapt to the restrictions put in place
to inhibit the spread of the coronavirus,” said Debbie Guerra,
executive vice president, ACI Worldwide. “Consumers are
increasingly making use of click-and-collect options because of
convenience and safety—but these changing patterns also attract
fraudsters, resulting in a significant uptick in attempted
fraud.”
Fraud attempt rates reached 4.3 percent in April, slightly down
from 5.3 percent in March, but still up from 3.8 percent compared
to this time last year. Attempted fraud is focused on segments that
have seen high sales growth, such as consumer electronics, with the
average ticket price of attempted fraud up $26.
Click-and-collect—or buy online, pick up in store—also accounted
for a rise in attempted fraud. The transactional value of attempted
fraud rose by 9.9 percent, reflecting fraudsters’ continued
emphasis on popular high-value items including laptops and TVs.
“Fraudsters continue to use the disruption to the status quo to
target unsuspecting consumers and unprepared businesses,” continued
Guerra. “While vigilance is paramount, merchants also need to
ensure that they are scrutinizing their fraud strategies to quickly
adapt to a highly dynamic new retail environment.”
Key Findings:
Online retail sectors with rising transaction volumes in
April 2020 (compared to April 2019):
- General Retail: +209 percent (74% in March), Gaming: +126
percent (97.3% in March), Digital downloads: +26 percent (5.4% in
March), Liquor online sales (Australia-specific): +208 percent (85%
in March)
Online retail sectors with declining transaction volumes in
the same period:
- Ticketing: -99 percent, Travel: -91 percent, Online dating: -5
percent
Transaction volume trends January-April 2020 (compared to
same period in 2019):
- Digital downloads: +17 percent, Gaming: +60, Retail: +24
percent
Fraud Trends:
- Chargebacks for non-fraudulent reasons (i.e., “friendly fraud”)
have risen by 25 percent through the end of March as merchants face
challenges in processing refunds, staffing call centers or
delivering services. Note that merchants are aggressively working
to lower chargeback volumes and related costs as they also try to
improve the dispute experience for consumers.
- Average fraudulent attempted purchase value increased by $26 in
April, driven by electronic purchases and increases in
click-and-collect; this corresponds to a fraudulent attempted
transactional value increase of 9.9 percent. Average value of
genuine purchases sank by $21.
- Fraud attempt rate rose 1.6 percentage points in April 2020 to
reach 5.3 percent, up from 3.7 percent in April 2019.
“Consumer behavior is very much in flux, with some sectors
thriving while others are focused on surviving the economic impacts
of the pandemic,” concluded Guerra. “We’ve seen retailers across
sectors and geographies innovate and quickly adapt—including making
changes to payment method acceptance—but fraud prevention must now
be a focus. Transaction volumes are rising while average ticket
size is decreasing, putting pressure on margins and creating
challenges for supply chains and logistics, while fraudsters target
those big-ticket items that are seeing spikes in sales.”
Tips for Consumers to protect identity
and personal information during the COVID-19 crisis:
- Beware of online requests for personal information.
Coronavirus-themed emails seeking personal information are likely
to be phishing scams. Legitimate government agencies won’t ask for
that information. Delete the email.
- Check the email address or link. Inspect a link by
hovering the mouse over the URL to see where it leads. Sometimes
it’s obvious the web address is not legitimate. But keep in mind
phishers can create links that closely resemble legitimate
addresses. Delete the email.
- Watch for spelling and grammatical mistakes. If an email
includes spelling, punctuation and grammar errors, it’s likely a
sign of a phishing email. Delete the email.
- Look for generic greetings. Phishing emails are unlikely
to use a person’s name. Greetings like “Dear sir or madam” often
signal an email is not legitimate.
- Avoid emails that insist acting now. Phishing emails
often try to create a sense of urgency or demand immediate action.
Delete the email.
Tips for Merchants to maintain security
and deliver to customers during the COVID-19 crisis:
- Maintain security and deliver a great customer
experience, as consumer purchasing behavior—both genuine and
fraudulent—has changed.
- For example: Express shipment and buy online, pick up in store
delivery methods continue to grow, making transaction
decision speed and accuracy critical.
- Use customer profiling and time-on-file techniques to maintain
the customer experience for valued customers and ensure good
transactions are still accepted.
- Expect an increase in “friendly fraud” chargebacks as a
result of growing financial difficulties among consumers. Friendly
fraud occurs when a cardholder receives goods but denies making a
purchase or a family member makes purchase without cardholder
approval.
- Monitor systems and update as necessary. Business intelligence
tools and real-time monitoring lead to immediate decisions and
responses. Employ rapid access to fraud intelligence to inform
rules changes in real time.
- Engage frequently with web and mobile site security management.
Give these teams the tools, techniques and procedures to detect,
contain and mitigate botnets. And considering the presence of both
good and bad bots, put business policies in place to address this
issue with clarity for both teams.
About ACI Worldwide
ACI Worldwide, the Universal Payments (UP) company, powers
electronic payments for more than 6,000 organizations around the
world. More than 1,000 of the largest financial institutions and
intermediaries, as well as thousands of global merchants, rely on
ACI to execute $14 trillion each day in payments and securities. In
addition, myriad organizations utilize our electronic bill
presentment and payment services. Through our comprehensive suite
of software solutions delivered on customers’ premises or through
ACI’s private cloud, we provide real-time, immediate payments
capabilities and enable the industry’s most complete omni-channel
payments experience. To learn more about ACI, please visit
www.aciworldwide.com. You can also find us on Twitter
@ACI_Worldwide.
© Copyright ACI Worldwide, Inc. 2020
ACI, ACI Worldwide, the ACI logo, ACI Universal Payments, UP,
the UP logo and all ACI product/solution names are trademarks or
registered trademarks of ACI Worldwide, Inc., or one of its
subsidiaries, in the United States, other countries or both. Other
parties' trademarks referenced are the property of their respective
owners.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200511005666/en/
PR Dan Ring dan.ring@aciworldwide.com 781-370-3600
Katrin Boettger katrin.boettger@aciworldwide.com 0044 (0)7776
147 910
Christopher Taine (APAC/EMEA) christopher.taine@aciworldwide.com
+49 (0) 89 45230 128
ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ:ACIW)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024
ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ:ACIW)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024