Global ecommerce transactions increased since November 2020, ACI Worldwide reveals

According to the press release, the result was driven by strong consumer demand for household items and services, especially those providing shipment, remote education and training, and insurance for consumer electronics. Accordingly, based on hundreds of millions of ecommerce transactions from global merchants, the retail sector saw a significant increase (30%) over the five-day period from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday in 2020 compared to 2019.

Additionally, fraud attempt rates increased slightly to 1.7% by volume and 3.4% by value, similar to prior holiday seasons, as a result of increased genuine consumer spending outpacing fraud. Non-fraud chargebacks increased by 15% in October 2020 compared to 2019, a lower percentage than that of April and May of 2020, mainly due to more people being back at work and call centers being better staffed to deal with consumer calls.

Key findings regarding ecommerce purchasing trends:

• In 2020 to-date (January to November), global ecommerce transactions increased by 20% compared to the same period last year.

• Travel and ticketing continued to see a significant dip in November due to the pandemic, declining 60 and 85% respectively.

• Transactions in the gaming sector increased 50%; this increase was less than previous months, potentially due to market saturation as well as consumers potentially awaiting holiday gift cards for gaming purchases.

• The US saw an increase in transactions of 20% and the UK of 19% from January through November 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.

• We continue to see ecommerce spending behaviours change because of lockdown, driving UK purchases earlier this holiday season than ever before.

New fraud trends observed:​

• Fraudulent attempt purchase value decreased by USD 11 in 2020 compared to 2019; this was the impact of airline, sporting event and concert ticket purchase declines, which have a high average ticket price; genuine purchases value decreased by USD 18​.

• Fraud attempt rates by volume increased slightly by 1.7% and 3.4% by value, similar to prior holiday seasons, as a result of increased genuine consumer spending outpacing fraud.