Mastercard’s New Product is Intended as the First Layer in a Multi-Layer Fraud Management Strategy
Small business owners face a long list of challenges. From obtaining payment card processing abilities and reducing risk to ensuring profitability and creating strategies for continued growth, business ownership can be a stressful, all-consuming venture.
Current industry conversations reveal Mastercard Labs, the creators of the infamous Selfie Pay, intend to make the process easier.
What is Simplify Commerce?
Simplify Commerce is an all-in-one payment platform. First introduced by Mastercard in 2013, Simplify Commerce is billed as basic payment processing for small and medium-sized businesses, offering an alternative to plug-and-go, mobile device-based services.
With Simplify Commerce, any organization or business can begin accepting payment cards—from nonprofit organizations and PTOs to a teenager with a lawn-mowing business. With the ability to accept payment cards, SMBs can gain a greater competitive edge, find and retain more clients, and unlock future growth potential.
According to Keith Ingenthron, strategic partnerships representative at Simplify Commerce, creators wanted to infuse the ability to accept payment cards into industries that have traditionally been dominated by cash and check.
Simplify Commerce features include:
- A virtual terminal so merchants can accept payments from any device
- eInvoicing that sends electronic invoices and enables secure payments
- Safe and secure recurring transactions
- In-app payments for both iOS and Android devices
- A secure way to store customer, payment, and transaction information
- Hosted payments that are PCI compliant
- Integration with popular eCommerce shopping carts through a plugin
All Simplify Commerce services are provided for free, and merchant accounts are provided through either Evo Payments International or Priority Payment Systems. As a relatively new startup, it is yet to be seen if these strategic partnerships will help or hinder Simplify Commerce’s success. Company executives did say they hope to integrate with additional financial institutions. Not only would this increase options for merchants searching for the perfect fit for their company, the product also offers banks an opportunity to work with merchants who might otherwise turn to other payment processing options.
The platform is designed to mirror the simplicity and intuitive nature of services like Square and PayPal, but with the greater degree of support offered by traditional payments processors. Simplify Commerce uses tokenization technology for all purchases, and allows merchants to accept the following:
- All payments using Mastercard, Visa, Discover, AMEX, JCB, and Diner’s Club-branded cards
- Card-not present (online) payments
- Recurring payments
- Apple/Android Pay online
- Omnichannel orders across computer, phone, or tablet
- MasterPass
All of the Simplify Commerce tools are accessible from one, easy-to-navigate dashboard, including the service’s newest tool, Simplify Controls.
What is Simplify Controls?
Mastercard made an interesting move on May 23, 2016 when they introduced Simplify Controls, a new fraud detection and prevention tool.
The tool works in conjunction with Simplify Commerce or as a standalone product, targeted primarily at small to medium-sized businesses. Working as a basic fraud filter, Simplify Controls scans transactions before authorizing, flagging suspicious transactions as potential fraud.
Simplify Controls offers merchants an easy-to-understand interface that evaluates a matrix of indicators for each transaction (country of origin, transaction amount, etc.). The tool then assigns a risk level to each transaction, 1 being low risk and 99 being high risk. Merchants can define thresholds based on the fraud score, or customize their rules based on individual characteristics.
The Increasing Fraud Threat
It’s no secret that eCommerce fraud is one of the greatest challenges facing card-not-present merchants. Studies show the average merchant sustains 156 fraudulent transactions per month, each averaging $113. When fees and other expenses are added in, fraud could end up costing at least $39,310.44 per month. In total, fraud steals 1.39% of revenue annually.
Small businesses cannot sustain that kind of loss and still turn a profit.
While it’s general knowledge that fraud depletes revenue and can negatively impact customer relations, 60% of merchants report they do not take advantage of any fraud prevention tools. This could be because 47% of merchants believe it costs too much to control fraud.
Mastercard claims they created Simplify Controls to challenge that perception, providing services as a first-line of defense against fraud.
Multi-Layered Fraud Solutions for SMB Merchants
While the addition of Simplify Controls is a valuable asset, it is important to note that fraud filters are just one element of an effective, comprehensive fraud prevention strategy.
One of the current trending topics in eCommerce is multi-layered fraud management. Fraud mitigation experts at LexisNexis® Risk Solutions emphasize the following:
Fraud emerges from many different facets; no one solution is likely to be the “holy grail” at this point in time. There needs to be more awareness and understanding about the value of investing in a multi-layered approach to fraud mitigation. As findings have shown, the right multi-layered approach can justify upfront costs of the solution investment, as greater accuracy yields more positive results on the bottom line.”
Merchants need to build a layered approach to fraud prevention, and Simplify Controls might be the first line of defense for small to medium-sized businesses. However, in order to stand up against complex fraud threats, merchants need a dynamic approach to fraud prevention involving multiple different solutions—and Chargebacks911® should be one of those solutions.
Like Simplify Commerce, Chargebacks911 also offers fraud solutions that address the unique challenges of small businesses . We make chargeback management more efficient, increase revenue retention, and allow merchants to reallocate resources to revenue-generating tasks.
Our customized service levels and pricing plans ensure we are effective and affordable for merchants of all sizes. Not only that, but as a business grows and expands, our services scale right along with the merchant.
Chargebacks911 complements a merchant’s current fraud detection and prevention efforts, not replaces them. Like fraud filters, we are an integral part of effective multi-layer fraud mitigation.
Have you used any of the Simplify Commerce tools? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
Contact Chargebacks911 today if you’d like more information about our SMB-friendly products and services.
