“You know, they say you are not supposed to buy any of those gift cards at the checkout stands.”
Your 84-year old father points this out as you wait to pay at the grocery store. Fearful of the fraud and identity theft that appears to be never ending in today’s society, senior citizens are not the only Americans worried by the news reports of these events.
A main concern of merchants in today’s economy is secure payment solutions. In an effort to protect both their businesses and their consumers, merchants must contract with companies that provide everything from card not present notifications to other chargeback protection e-commerce options.
Merchant Decisions Determine the Success of Secure Payment Systems
For all of the progress that the electronic payments industry has made in the last two decades, some consumers remain concerned about the security of these payments. Consider the following statistics:
- $16.31 billion worldwide fraud losses from payment card fraud were recorded in 2014.
- $35.45 billion is the estimated worldwide fraud level prediction by the year 2020.
- 1,540 worldwide data breaches in 2014 showed a 46% from the year 2013, leading to the compromise of more than one billion data records.
- 54% of data breaches in 2014 were related to identity theft.
- 17% of data breaches in 2014 were related to financial access.
- 11% of data breaches in 2014 were related to account access.
Not surprisingly, the entire merchant secure payments platform is a response to these, and other, concerns. And while businesses across the nation are working to improve their internet presence, these same merchants realize that 12% of the cases of credit or debit card fraud depend on an internet Website as the initial point of contact. Advancing technology that immediately reports suspicious card not present activities and other fraud indicators.
Even though internet shopping continues to be a growing trend among American consumers, a portion of society remain fearful about security. Armed with stories of security theft and data breaches, these consumers may be the most challenging market for today’s merchants. Incorporating the most advanced secure payment platforms may be able to help draw in the most most skeptical buyers.