COVID-19 Impact on Global E-Commerce & Fraud Trends

Forter COO Colin Sims and Forter Senior Analytics Team Lead Nir Maayan recently sat down with Mike McCormack, Vice President of BWGConnect to discuss how Coronavirus (COVID-19) has impacted global e-commerce and fraud trends across industries.

During this session Colin and Nir discussed:

To begin the discussion, Colin presented Forter’s position in the market, and some of the macro-level impacts the company has witnessed throughout the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Forter holds a unique place in the global commerce market as an intermediary sharing insights across a network of enterprise merchants which captures data from more than 620 million consumers. Forter leverages this data – including touch points ranging from new account interactions, to loyalty programs, and returns abuse – in conjunction with human expertise and industry knowledge to help customers process online transactions accurately and as quickly as possible while protecting themselves from fraud and abuse.

Macro Trends Across the Global Market

As the impacts of COVID-19 continue to unfold, it is important to note that the data Forter traces are contained to digital or online channels. While Forter may see volumes for some online apparel merchants positively trending, it is important to understand that this does not necessarily coincide with their results in the physical world, where many businesses have been forced to shutter their stores.

As such, the world is currently divided into the “have” and “have nots,” comments Sims. Some industries have benefited significantly from the current conditions, i.e. grocery and on-demand delivery services or marketplaces for liquor, laundry, or restaurants. While industries including travel brokers or event coordinators have experienced dramatic downturns in transaction volume. For example, the travel industry has declined by nearly 80-100% in volume while events merchants’ transaction volumes have been nearly negligible during this period.

Given the variations in consumer behaviors and trends in what people need during the current climate, it is not possible to paint the global e-commerce landscape in broad strokes. There are nuances across industries and even within particular categories of stores and products that must be taken into account.

Consumer Trends and Fraud Behaviors

As one of the leading analysts at Forter, Nir outlined the importance of understanding three different areas as we look at trends across e-commerce industries.

  1. The merchant approach
  2. Consumer buying behaviors
  3. Shifts in fraud

These three factors create somewhat of a never-ending chain reaction. As consumers change their behaviors and buying habits, merchants thereby shift their approach to daily operations and adapt their portfolios, while fraudsters then likewise shift and adapt their behaviors as well. These three factors are always in relationship with one another and they are important to keep in mind as we look across different industries and try to understand why different phenomena or trends occur.

Industries
With people across the globe suddenly finding themselves without brick and mortar stores to visit, there has been a natural increase in online activity. People – both those that have been habitual online shoppers, as well as those new to online shopping altogether – now have a sudden need to buy both essential and non-essential items from online merchants.

Here are some of the trends Forter has recently seen across the following industries:

Fashion & Beauty

Travel

Digital Goods

Marketplaces

Food & Beverage

Projections for the Coming Months

For more details on consumer trends across industries, the impacts of COVID-19, and how to better prepare your business in the coming months, listen to the full recording or read our Special Report here.