New consumer survey on online shopping habits and reactions to card fraud

Riskified surveyed 5,000 US-based consumers aged 18 and older about their online shopping behaviours, experience with and prevalence of credit card fraud, repeat shopping likelihood and customer satisfaction to develop a full picture of how consumers react to a number of common shopping experiences. The results are worrisome for both consumers and merchants, as roughly half of respondents reported experience with credit card fraud and 30% had their purchase wrongly declined, with a corresponding negative impact on their satisfaction and return shopping.

Overall, 49% of consumers surveyed reported having been a victim of credit card fraud, where someone else illegally used their card information. Among all respondent groups aged 31 or older, a majority of consumers were the victims of credit card fraud.

Merchants often decline orders out of caution, and previous research conducted by Riskified found that fear of fraud costs even more than the fraud itself, as merchants unnecessarily reject good customers. This survey bears that out, as 30% of respondents reported having an order declined, and 57% of those declines happen to returning customers, squandering the good will merchants had built. The survey further found that roughly 42% of shoppers who experienced a decline moved on, either abandoning the purchase completely (28%) or shopping with a competitor instead (14%).

Even shoppers who arent declined may move away from a purchase: 84% of respondents reported abandoning an order before completing the purchase, with many of these shoppers blaming the checkout process; 37.3% abandoned a purchase because of a complicated checkout, while 34.9% blamed a bad mobile experience.

Additional key findings from the survey include:

• among victims of credit card fraud, 29% blamed the merchant that approved the fraudulent purchase;

• cart abandonment continues to be a big problem for merchants, and 84% of survey respondents reported abandoning a purchase in progress;

• 38% of respondents admitted they have or may have created multiple email addresses to gain additional online shopping discounts. While not illegal, this type of discount abuse can seriously impact merchants bottom lines;

• more than 71% of cart abandoners blamed the checkout process - for being overly complicated, not mobile optimized or seeming untrustworthy - as the reason they abandoned their purchase.

In addition to this data, the Shopping and Fraud Behavior Report includes more information on consumer shopping habits and preferences and outlines best practices for merchants to combat fraud.