Marketers are oblivious to the costs and implications of hacking and fraud to their organisations during the holiday season, a new survey has revealed.
Balancing fraud prevention while maintaining effective marketing efforts in the run up to the holidays is proving to be challenging for many marketers, with 60% unaware of the costs of cyber crime to their organisation.
The survey, in which 250 marketers participated, was conducted to forge a link between fraud prevention, omni-channel retailing and the holiday shopping season by fraud detection and prevention platform 41st Parameter, which forms part of Experian Marketing Services.
Experian found that few marketers understand the full benefit of fraud prevention systems and 40% admitted they had been the target of cyber crime or hackers.
New challenges
With confidence in mobile and online purchasing on the rise year on year, 35% of businesses revealed plans to increase digital marketing spend during the 2014 holiday season, as business fight to stand out among competitors.
Experian also found 80% of marketers planned on conducting cross-channel campaigns during 2014, thus introducing new challenges and further pressure for fraud-risk managers as they attempt to embrace new and alternative approaches.
The overall findings of the survey reveal planning and organisation are key to reducing lost revenue as marketing campaigns become bigger and more complex. Marketers must ensure that there is a full understanding of fraud detection and risk management, working closely with their fraud-risk teams.
David Britton, vice president of industry solutions at 41st Parameter, emphasised the value of fraud prevention, especially during the holiday season, noting the importance of the customer experience.
“Marketers spend a great deal of time and money bringing in new customers and increasing sales, especially this time of year, and in too many cases, those efforts are negated in the name of fraud prevention.
“Marketers can help an organization’s bottom line by working with their fraud-risk department to prevent bad transactions from occurring while maintaining a seamless customer experience. Reducing fraud is important and protecting the customer experience is a necessity.”
Omni-fraud approach
The size of a business can have an effect of their understanding and comprehension of cybercrime risks, reports Experian, who warns that companies, regardless of size, shouldn’t assume that fraud won’t affect their business.
Among small businesses, 70% stated they were unsure of the impact of fraud and cyber crime, with 50% of mid-sized business marketers and 67% of large-enterprise marketers unclear on the impact of hacking and fraud to their campaigns and organisations.
“Many businesses loosen their fraud detection measures during high peak time because they don’t have the tools to review potentially risky orders manually during the higher-volume holiday shopping period,” said Britton.
“Criminals look to capitalize on this and exploit these gaps in any way possible, taking an omni-fraud approach to maximizing their chances of success. Striking the right balance between sales enablement and fraud prevention is the key to maximizing growth for any business at all times of the year.”