WORLD’S LARGEST MOBILE PAYMENTS & FRAUD SURVEY RELEASED

Significant jump seen in perception of risk with mCommerce

While the mobile channel grows in importance and revenue for merchants, so does their fear of fraudulent attacks and the realization that combating that risk requires specialized tools. Those are some of the key findings from the 2^nd Annual Mobile Payments and Fraud Survey, which is now available for free download at the Kount website.

The 2014 Survey, conducted by Kount, Inc., The Fraud Practice LLC, and CardNotPresent.com, is the biggest survey ever undertaken focused entirely on fraud and the mobile channel, surveying more than 1000 merchants across the globe.

“After establishing the benchmark last year, the 2014 Mobile Payment & Fraud Survey shows continued development in mobile commerce and risk management initiatives as well as changes in expectations and priorities for the mobile channel,” noted David Montague, president & executive consultant, The Fraud Practice LLC. “Not only are organizations now more likely to find that the fraud risk associated with the mobile channel is higher than with standard web eCommerce, but organizations are also more likely to believe the mobile channel requires additional tools for managing risk.”

Conducted from November 2013 to January 2014, the Mobile Payments and Fraud Survey had nearly 2000 participants, including merchants, service providers, acquirers, card associations and issuers. Of the 1000 merchants participating, more than half reported annual revenues exceeding $50 million.

Notable merchant insights from the survey include:

•  The mobile channel accounts for 20% of their business double that of last year
•  66% of merchants surveyed now actively support mobile – up by 30% year to year
• Merchants that offer a mobile app for online shopping more than doubled from 21% to 54%, while nearly half of merchants now offer a dedicated mobile website
•  32% percent see mobile as riskier than standard e-commerce – up from 24% last year
• Merchants that believe standard eCommerce fraud processes are enough for managing mobile channel risk fell from 37 to 26 percent since the inaugural survey
• 32% say fraud prevention specific to mobile is increasingly necessary – nearly double the sentiment of last year’s responses

“Clearly mobile commerce is a source of tremendous opportunity for online retailers and their focus on this channel has grown considerably each year,” said Don Bush, vice president of Marketing at Kount. “Merchants also realize that fraud follows opportunity, and there may be no greater opportunity for fraud today than in mobile. Protecting and growing your business requires a fraud solution that integrates with all mobile platforms without any impact to the customer experience or your business.”

Regarding fraud prevention, survey respondents varied by sector and revenue size about the need for specialized tools for fraud prevention. However, more than half considered the ability to detect a mobile device as “very important” and 89% of respondents considered it at least “important” or “somewhat important.” Despite this sentiment, only 34.2% of those surveyed can detect a mobile device and merchants able to detect the specific type of mobile device decreased from last year.

“As our report fully captures, mobile acceptance is on the rise across virtually every category of merchant,” said Steven Casco, CEO of CardNotPresent.com. “Much of our coverage in CardNotPresent.com is chronicling how and why commerce – and fraud – is shifting to the mobile channel, and this report reinforces the notion of that evolution with hard data. As valuable as this data is to us, as a publication, it’s even more important for merchants that want it straight from the source.”

In its second year, the Mobile Payments and Fraud Survey combined the industry insight and expertise of The Fraud Practice LLC and CardNotPresent.com and support of Kount to provide a thorough analysis of one of the most dynamic and challenging environments facing online retailers today.

A free copy of the 2014 Mobile Payments & Fraud Survey is available now at the Kount website. Additionally, the CNP Expo in Orlando on May 19-22 will feature a keynote with a comprehensive look at the report’s findings.