How Data Analytics Helps Retailers

Analytics provides the insight and visibility from which to make faster, smarter business decisions. It evaluates what has happened in the past or what is likely to occur in the future, offering performance insights, highlighting strengths and weaknesses, and offering strategies for improvement. 

Tehani Legeay, General Manager of Identity and Fraud at Equifax, regards analytics as “taking the power into your hands to make smarter decisions across the consumer lifecycle.”

As a retailer, this can take any number of forms, including putting you in the driver’s seat to make informed acquisition and transaction decisions to continuously accept trustworthy customers while rejecting higher-risk ones in line with your unique business and compliance needs.  

Better the power in your hands than the hands of fraudsters, who continually seek new ways to use eCommerce to their advantage.

Key Benefits of Data Analytics for Retailers

1. Detecting suspicious activity in real-time

Chargebacks and account takeover fraud are some of the ways today’s fraudsters are stealing from online retailers. By harnessing insights from extensive data and real-time analysis, retailers can swiftly pinpoint suspicious behaviours and transactions with high confidence. 

Collaboration across brands, retailers and industry sectors to share data insights is key to combating evolving fraud threats. For instance, using peer benchmarking analysis helped an Equifax retail client reduce chargebacks by comparing internal data with aggregated data from industry peers. Another client in the retail and leisure industry was able to reduce chargebacks and increase revenue by optimising their decisioning rules on transaction data.

“That’s the power of data through community – having a safe and secure ecosystem where everyone collectively contributes to creating a safer digital marketplace”, says Legeay.

Also vital to controlling fraud in eCommerce transactions is access to a global data network where data elements are linked across millions of transactions worldwide. Legeay explains that “consumers are global shoppers, so signals like device location and IP address can provide valuable clues to fraudulent activity.”

The leading fraud solution, Kount, is built on an Identity Trust Global Network™ spanning 75+ industries, 32 billion annual interactions across 250+ countries and territories, 50+ payment processors and card networks and thousands of fraud analyst decisions.

2. Frictionless journey from account login to payment transaction 

A negative customer experience during an online purchase could result in a lost sale and reduce the chance of the customer returning for future transactions. Balancing heightened fraud controls with a smooth online experience is an ongoing challenge for online retailers, particularly as fraud exists at every customer journey stage. Data analytic-driven fraud solutions employ sophisticated algorithms and machine learning to scrutinise vast data sets in real-time and swiftly identify potential fraud while ensuring minimal disruption to legitimate transactions. This approach fortifies the payment process, providing a secure yet seamless path for trusted customers or additional authentication for those customers who appear risky.

“We use data to understand the unique risks at each customer journey interaction so that we can get the friction right for the specific consumer and journey touchpoint”, says Legeay.

Discover how Equifax data analytics helps retailers make informed decisions, deliver personalised customer journeys, protect against fraud and build deep engagements that increase customer lifetime value.

Contact Equifax today to explore our comprehensive fraud and identity solutions.