Global e-commerce transactions increased by 19% in July 2020 compared to July 2019, according to analysis by ACI Worldwide of hundreds of millions of e-commerce 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% 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 e-commerce 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 e-commerce 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 e-commerce trend to continue post-COVID as consumers experience the convenience and speed of digital payments.?
Key findings include:
E-commerce 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 USD 52 on average per order of PPE items.
- The average ticket price of genuine purchases dropped by USD 26 in 2020 compared to 2019.
- Purchase volume increased YoY in all regions:
- EMEA up 17%, driven by purchases of DIY items
- U.S. up 13%, driven by gaming and apparel purchases
- APAC up 43%, driven by gaming and alcohol purchases
Fraud trends:
- Transactional value of fraud attempts was 3.5% in July, driven by purchases of electronics such as laptops, TVs and webcams.
- The average ticket price for fraud attempts increased by USD 10 in the period January through July 2020, compared to the same period in 2019.
- Non-fraud chargebacks* increased by 23% in June 2020 compared to June 2019.
*As chargebacks take approximately 45 days to process, the most current complete data is from June 2020.
