Case Study

Brief

Blue Inc are a clothing retailer with a significant presence on the high street as well as a transactional website that has been running for 18 months now. Their best selling line is a t-shirt named Sex Drugs and Sausage Rolls which has flown off the shelves and expected to be a best seller this Christmas.

192business are leaders in Identity Verification, and help a number of retailers such as Panasonic, Screwfix and Dell, to prevent fraud whilst still being able to accept genuine customers. As well as age verification services 192business provide services to verify identities and screen for known fraud; thus reducing the costs of chargebacks; where a card is known to have been used fraudulently.

When Blue Inc first starting transacting online they were finding high levels of chargebacks at around 8%. This was obviously seriously affecting their revenues. Blue Inc. is well aware of the dangers that fraudsters pose to their bottom line especially around the peak Christmas and January sale period.

Strategy & Execution

192business worked with Blue Inc to implement our identity verification tools, in a way that allows them to unintrusively check their customers quickly and with high match rates. This involved looking at characteristics of known fraud cases and finding ways in which to identify and spot these. For example Blue Inc find the busiest time of the year for them is the Monday two weeks before Christmas. Sadly this is the time they also have to face fraudsters trying their luck, especially around midnight to 6am each day. By spending time understanding their online orders, we were able to tailor our ID solutions to meet their needs.

We also implemented our fraud screening and alerts solution, which means Blue Inc are alerted when an order matches a previous reported fraud. This is important as fraudsters will often use stolen card details on a number of sites, and fraud screening helps more online retailers avoid being hit by the cost of fraud.

192business also provided full training for staff using the system, and are always available to provide any further support that might be needed; although Blue Inc have required little additional help, to date!

Results

By bringing in fraud prevention specialists 192business, Blue Inc. were able to significantly lower their fraud rates. They were able to reduce chargebacks from 8% by two thirds. “The 192business solution is easy to use with high match rates that leave you confident you are stopping fraudsters and not genuine customers from shopping. The sharing of suspected and reported fraud between other retailers has saved us many a time. We wouldn’t be without it.”

Blue Inc. intend to continue reducing their chargebacks using a variety of 192business’ databases including shared fraud alert data. The existence of multiple global databases means that Blue Inc. can be confident when transacting globally.