Fighting fraud without losing genuine customers

Westwing Home & Living was growing internationally. With this success came greater visibility, a rise in transaction value and an increase in fraud. The company already had an effective fraud prevention system in place, but it was inadvertently blocking a proportion of legitimate shoppers and risk refusal rates had climbed to 12%.

Westwing needed a solution that was able to differentiate between fraudsters and legitimate shoppers.

Safe as houses with intelligent risk management
The solution came with Adyen’s built-in risk management solution, RevenueProtect which, thanks to Adyen’s unique position as an acquirer and a payment processor, was able to take in a wide-breadth of data from the card schemes to discern the risk level of each transaction. This data was then used alongside advanced algorithms and criteria specific to Westwing’s business, to target and prevent fraudsters without blocking legitimate customers.

RevenueProtect’s dynamic transaction-linking algorithm, ShopperDNA, enabled Westwing to track fraudsters across devices, networks, and online personas. Using advanced device fingerprinting and user-attribute linking, this system provided a holistic view of every shopper. This meant Westwing could automate the identification of fraudsters in real-time, while allowing genuine shoppers through.

“ShopperDNA has transformed risk management for us. The ability to view shoppers in real-time has enabled us to fight fraud without blocking our genuine customers. As a result our risk refusal rates are down to 0.2%, which means that the overall risk refusals were reduced by approx. 98%”, says Shejn Tahirsylaj, Senior Payment & Project Manager at Westwing

A bonus outcome was the time Westwing saved on manual reviews. Previously, the company reviewed all international transactions on a daily basis. With the RevenueProtect Risk Engine, this was no longer necessary.

By using a combination of machine learning and pre-set criteria, the Risk Engine dynamically identifies ‘high-risk’ transactions that require manual review, while letting ‘low-risk’ transactions proceed. This engine is fully customizable and Westwing was able to adjust the settings, applying knowledge taken from its own customer data, to ensure the optimal balance.

“The Risk Engine has brought automation to a previously manual process, and has saved us a great deal of time. As a result, our manual reviews are down by 30%. What’s more, we still have complete control over the system, meaning we are truly in the driving seat of our risk management.” Shejn Tahirsylaj

Reducing bank refusal rates
Because Adyen connects directly to the major card schemes, it can provide insight into the reasons behind credit card refusals. Westwing has used this to implement a system that redirects a returning shopper with an expired card to the payment selection step in the checkout, so they can enter a new card. In other cases Westwing generates specific error messages highlighting the reason for the refusal to reduce the number of subsequent refusals.

“Understanding why a credit card transaction is declined is paramount to solving the problem, and, thanks to Adyen’s detailed insights, we can now follow up with customers to ensure their card details are up to date. Just weeks after launching this new initiative, we have already seen a significant drop of 24% across the bank refusal rates.” Shejn Tahirsylaj

Fully furnished with Adyen
With Adyen, strategic risk management forms an integral part of the payment chain. Using real-time data to automate the bulk of risk mitigation has helped to increase Westwing’s revenue and will continue to support its further growth.

“Adyen has been an excellent partner in our work to combat fraud. Together we have developed a robust risk management strategy tailored to our business, that has driven real business results.” Shejn Tahirsylaj

About Volker Steinle

Volker joined Adyen in 2011 as Sales Manager in Germany. He later moved to a global business development role, based in Amsterdam, to help fuel the companys global expansion, before returning to Germany as Country Manager. Prior to joining Adyen, Volker spent three years at TomTom as Business Development Manager, where he helped it become a major consumer company. His global experience perfectly translates to his current role, helping Adyen merchants leverage payments as fuel for growth. Volker has an MBA from the Rotterdam School of Management.

About Adyen

Adyen is a technology company that provides businesses with a single solution to accept payments anywhere in the world. The only provider of a modern end-to-end infrastructure connecting merchants directly to Visa, MasterCard, and 250 other payment methods globally, Adyen delivers frictionless payments across online, mobile, and in-store. Headquartered in Amsterdam and San Francisco, with offices across North America, South America, Europe and Asia Pacific, Adyen serves more than 4,500 businesses, including 7 of the 10 largest US. Internet companies, and 3 of the top 5 global apparel brands.