The story of pandemic-induced increases in e-commerce transactions and fraud has been covered extensively throughout the year. And, according to a new report ($), merchants can expect global fraud losses to continue to pile up this year—growing 18 percent from 2020 to 2021 to more than $20 billion.
Despite the increases, however, the report from U.K. consultancy Juniper Research notes merchants remain reticent to implement technology that will introduce friction. The company expects digital sellers to increase their use of AI-based systems that use technology like behavioral biometrics to identify bad actors and predict fraudulent transactions.
“While the need for security is greater than ever, the competitive e-commerce environment means merchants will need to ensure that extra security checks are justified to the user,” notes research co-author Susan Morrow, “or they risk higher cart abandonment rates.”
The report also identified Chinese companies as being the biggest target for fraudsters, in the aggregate. Merchants in the massive e-commerce market are behind much of the world in their use of antifraud technology, resulting in a market that accounts for 40 percent of all fraud losses.
