06 March 2014
Mobile commerce continues to grow, yet many merchants aren’t prepared to handle the nuances associated with it. Fraud prevention is one factor, but knowing which online transactions are initiated with mobile devices also remains a mystery for many retailers, contends Brad Wiskirchen, CEO of Kount, whose fraud and risk-management solution detects and prevents eCommerce and credit card fraud for card-not-present merchants.
Among the more than 2,000 mobile merchants Kount recently surveyed, in excess of 85 percent felt it was important to know which online transactions were initiated with mobile devices, yet only 45 percent could do so with any certainty, Wiskirchen noted in a recent podcast interview with Market Platform Dynamics CEO Karen Webster.
(Jump to: 2:51)“There’s still a cloud of mystery around the mobile channel and how to best approach it and how to monetize it,” he said. “And this seems to be leading to chaos and myths about how much fraud is slipping through.”
In mobile’s early days, phones served as a nice way to browse, but now they have become an imperative way to shop. But the traditional tools to combat fraud quickly have become ineffective in preventing today’s different types of fraud, Wiskirchen said. Mobile wallets, for example, carry different fraud-prevention needs, as do mobile apps and commerce conducted within an app, he added.
Commerce is something that can occur at any time at any place and with any payment method. Similarly, the speed of fraud also is “incredible” now, Wiskirchen said. “It’s a different game,” he added.
As such, merchants should have a fraud strategy in place just as they do a sales plan that is updated as needed, Wiskirchen said. “We attacked the mobile challenge years ago and have expanded our platform to account for user experiences within the mobile space,” he said, noting Kount’s single platform strategy can oversee all fraud and risk, regardless of where the transaction originates.
Kount’s ability to collect transactional data also provides merchants with a valuable resource to use for marketing and other purposes, Wiskirchen said.
To learn more about how Kount is addressing key merchant-security and data-mining needs, listen to the full podcast by clicking below.
