One of the most common questions we hear from risk leaders across the globe is how their fraud rates compare to others in their industry.
While the Merchant Risk Council (MRC) comes out with valuable fraud management key performance indicators (KPIs), there remains to be a definitive source for fraud benchmarks across industries and regions—until now.
To help businesses accurately gauge how their digital risk strategy stacks up, we have created the first fraud benchmarking resource of its kind. The Fraud Industry Benchmarking Resource (FIBR) is powered by Sift’s extensive global data network of one trillion events, providing a guidepost for businesses to aspire to when it comes to digital risk management.
With FIBR, businesses can compare payment fraud, fraudulent chargeback, and manual review rates against Sift benchmarks by industry or region over the past trailing year for crucial fraud insights. Understanding how a business’ own fraud rates stack up against others in their industry is mission-critical in building a successful risk management strategy. As the only independent leader named in the 2023 Forrester Wave™ for Digital Fraud Management report, it’s our priority to make these fraud benchmarks accessible not only to Sift customers, but to the broader fraud community as well.
Keep reading for key insights and findings from this new resource.
Top trends in attempted payment fraud
Across all industries and geographies, customers in Sift’s network experience an average payment fraud attack rate (or block rate) of 2.5%. This isn’t fraud that gets through business’ gates, rather, attempted payment fraud attacks that Sift’s network is able to detect and prevent in real time. For comparison, the MRC reports an average 4% global order rejection rate.
Some industries face higher payment fraud attack rates than others. For example, digital goods & services consistently experience a payment fraud attack rate above the overall Sift average. This industry is especially susceptible to fraud because it involves the purchase of intangible items that can be difficult to verify and authenticate.
Insights into fraudulent chargeback rates
Across the Sift network, businesses average a 0.08% fraudulent chargeback rate, 97% lower than the average 2.6% of e-commerce orders that led to chargebacks due to fraud reported from MRC’s global payments and fraud survey. By leveraging instant risk detection and prevention for transactions with Sift’s Digital Trust & Safety Platform, customers are able to drastically reduce fraudulent chargebacks.
Manual review best practices
According to the MRC, global merchants screen an average of 19% of all e-commerce orders manually. Sift cuts manual review rates down by 89% to 2.1%, making a huge impact on business efficiency and profitability. With automated risk management, businesses can reduce manual reviews and free up resources in order to focus on high-impact cases that directly influence key decisions and revenue.
Similarly to payment fraud and chargeback rates, certain industries have different levels of risk aversion, impacting the proportion of orders or transactions they send to manual review. The transportation industry reviews a high percentage of transactions compared to the Sift average due to the high cost of travel transactions, such as flights. Automatically accepting or declining these transactions without taking a closer look can result in payment fraud or false positives—impacting business profitability and growth.