ANALYTICS
How Customer Engagement Needs Data from Purchases
W By Jason Howard
26
TOTAL FINANCE
ho hasn’t looked at their bank statement at one point and thought, “wait a minute, what’s this transaction again?” And often, there isn’t enough information on our digital bank statements to help us make sense of our purchase history. In most cases though, these confusing statement descriptors are perfectly legitimate purchases. But many of them can still result in cases of “friendly fraud” — where consumers claim valid transactions as fraud — that ultimately lead to a chargeback. This is a particular problem now when more people are shopping online than ever before. In 2020 alone, consumers spent nearly $900B at online retailers largely due to the pandemic, and many of these newly formed digital shopping habits are expected to stay. With heightened online spending, consumers are increasingly relying on their digital bank channels to keep
track of their purchases. However, according to recent research, 77 percent of surveyed consumers report that they’re often unable to recognize transactions in their online statements, and 96 percent want more detailed information available in their digital banking application to help understand what they bought. One of the key problems is that consumers often lack the information needed to help determine if a purchase was truly legitimate or not. So, to build trust throughout the entire shopping experience, it’s important consumers have the information they need to recognize their purchases, in the place they’re most often reviewing them — their digital bank statements. This enhanced consumer experience also benefits banks and merchants, helping to reduce unnecessary disputes and chargebacks caused by friendly fraud.
FALL 2021
