eCommerce Transactions Remain High During Pandemic — Outdoor Equipment Sales Highest Since Start of Summer According to Latest ACI Worldwide Data

Fraud attempts continue to increase — driven by high-value items such as electronics

NAPLES, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Global eCommerce transactions increased by 19 percent in July 2020 compared to July 2019, according to analysis by ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: ACIW) of hundreds of millions of eCommerce transactions from global merchants. The data also showed that sales of outdoor items saw the highest year-over-year (YoY) increase from nine percent in 2019 to 12 percent in 2020.

Fraud continues to increase as criminals take advantage of card-not-present methods of payment, including buy-online-pick-up-in-store or click-and-collect methods. While fraudulent transactions by volume were slightly lower in 2020 (2.3%) compared to 2019 (2.6%), the data showed that fraud transactions by value were higher in 2020 (4.4%) compared to 2019 (3.7%).

“Fraudsters are targeting higher value items like electronics and luxury brand names, especially within newer channels such as curbside pick-up and in-parking lot pick-up,” said Debbie Guerra, executive vice president, ACI Worldwide.

Overall eCommerce sales continued to increase YoY in the U.S. (13%), U.K. (17%) and APAC (43%). This was driven by sub-sectors such as DIY, apparel, alcohol, digital downloads and gaming.

“We continue to see a huge increase above industry averages in eCommerce sales year-over-year,” Guerra continued. “As more brick-and-mortar stores reopen with COVID restrictions, we are seeing card-present transactions slightly increase; however, we expect the eCommerce trend to continue post-COVID as consumers experience the convenience and speed of digital payments.”

Key Findings:

eCommerce purchasing trends:

• Sectors that continue to experience a major increase in spending in July include gaming (52% increase) and retail (48% increase).
• Sectors that continue to experience a major decrease in spending in July include travel (16% decrease) and ticketing (86% decrease).
• Consumers spent $52 on average per order of PPE items.
• The average ticket price of genuine purchases dropped by $26 in 2020 compared to 2019
• Purchase volume increased YoY in all regions:
  • EMEA up 17 percent, driven by purchases of DIY items
  • U.S. up 13 percent, driven by gaming and apparel purchases
  • APAC up 43 percent, driven by gaming and alcohol purchases

Fraud trends:

• Transactional value of fraud attempts was 3.5 percent in July, driven by purchases of electronics such as laptops, TVs and webcams.
• The average ticket price for fraud attempts increased by $10 in the period January through July 2020, compared to the same period in 2019.
• Non-fraud chargebacks* increased by 23 percent in June 2020 compared to June 2019.

*As chargebacks take approximately 45 days to process, the most current complete data is from June 2020.

About ACI Worldwide
ACI Worldwide powers digital payments for more than 6,000 organizations around the world. More than 1,000 of the largest financial institutions and intermediaries, as well as thousands of global merchants, rely on ACI to execute $14 trillion each day in payments and securities. In addition, myriad organizations utilize our bill presentment and payment services. Through our comprehensive suite of software solutions delivered on customers’ premises, through the public cloud or through ACI’s private cloud, we provide real-time payment capabilities and enable the industry’s most complete omni-channel payments experience.

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