Chargebacks911® COO Monica Eaton’s New Guest Feature for Multichannel Merchant
2020 has been an unpredictable year, to say the least. That said, we can distinguish some apparent trends underway, as Monica notes in her latest guest feature for Multichannel Merchant.
Multichannel Merchant delivers original research and in-depth analysis of trends and best practices, news, executive summaries, and more. The publication’s aim is to help companies sell and deliver products wherever and whenever the customer wants them, whether at home, work, or anywhere else.
The “click-and-collect” business model was projected to be a $35 billion sales channel in 2020. That was before the COVID-19 outbreak; now, of course, we’re seeing much faster growth in this channel than was anticipated.
“Digital payments offer a faster, more convenient consumer experience, and merchants benefit as well,” Monica explains. “For instance, while implementing mobile ordering or other digital payment options demand an upfront investment, they can also reduce net overhead. Shops can devote fewer man-hours to the checkout process, while making other operations, like tracking inventory, much more efficient.”
Of course, there’s no such thing as an opportunity free of risk. As Monica notes, these fast-growing sales channels present new threats in terms of fraud and chargebacks. Merchants need to be able to react quickly and effectively if they hope to profit off new channels.
“Merchants should adopt basic practices, like using address verification (AVS) and geolocation. They should also reject order pickups beyond a certain distance from the ZIP code tied to the customer’s card…That’s just one example; merchants need a dynamic strategy with a variety of complementary tools to identify buyers.”
