There are Benefits to Early Sales…as Well as Risks
The holidays are obviously a great time for retailers. The allure of the year-end shopping bonanza leads merchant to push holiday sales earlier and earlier every year.
On the one hand, there are clear benefits to the holiday season starting earlier. Retailers have an opportunity to capitalize on sales, and more sales mean more than just increased revenue. Businesses can also collect valuable customer data to refine their marketing, processes, and product offerings. However, as Chargebacks911® COO Monica Eaton explained in her recent guest feature for Forbes, there may be a downside to all that holiday spending.
“Spreading the holiday season across a longer stretch of the year can offer more insights into consumer trends, but it may make other trends more difficult to spot,” Monica explains. “Under normal circumstances, you'd have some clues as to where and when to expect threats.”
Retailers—and vendors who work with them—will find resources stretched thin as the final quarter of 2018 heats up. Businesses won’t be able to devote as much attention to identifying fraud in individual transactions. The result: increased fraud attacks on the retail sector.
