BigCommerce verifies customers for digital offers

A leading e-commerce platform is helping retailers ensure personalized promotions reach their intended recipients.

BigCommerce is partnering with identity marketing technology provider SheerID to enable retailers using its platform to provide exclusive offers and discounts to consumer communities, such as students, military personnel, and healthcare workers. The SheerID app combines sub-second verification performance, no-code installation, and capabilities BigCommerce expects will help its retailers streamline sales, such as:

• Instant verification of eligible consumers without leaving the website.
• Automatic brand and design integration.
• BigCommerce promotion engine integration for single-use codes.
• Ownership of zero-party data for future marketing and sales.
• ROI reporting tracking conversion, revenue and average order value (AOV) impact.

Leveraging these capabilities, BigCommerce intends for retailers on its platform to be able to verify customers through multiple steps in their shopping journey. As a result, retailers will be able to extend special, targeted offers at different times during the shopping experience through a landing page, discount during checkout, or after registering for a loyalty program.

SheerID runs on a digital verification engine with access to 20,000 data sources around the world that can instantly verify eligible customers for exclusive offers. According to SheerID, by verifying audiences for exclusive offers with its technology, retailers have been able to generate three times the conversion of their typical campaigns and a return on ad spend (ROAS) of 20 to one or higher.

“Our partnership with SheerID further illustrates our commitment to providing merchants access to the highest-caliber technologies and service providers available in the industry,” said Russell Klein, chief commercial officer for BigCommerce. “SheerID shares our desire to help merchants sell more and grow faster to maximize success, and we look forward to working together to mutually support customers.”

“Our strategic partnership with BigCommerce enables BigCommerce merchants to access our audience verification software seamlessly from within their market-leading ecommerce platform,” said Jake Weatherly, CEO at SheerID. “In the cookieless future, online merchants will increasingly rely on zero-party data marketing solutions that are integrated directly into e-commerce platforms. SheerID has been a leader in driving consumer acquisition and retention by delivering privacy-compliant zero-party consumer data for more than 10 years.”

The SheerID app is now available on the BigCommerce Marketplace.

Online shopping fraud is on the rise
BigCommerce and SheeerID are releasing this new digital authentication functionality as fraudulent online transactions are rapidly increasing. Reports of online shopping fraud more than doubled in 2020, and for the first half of 2021 fraud numbers continued to be far higher than pre-pandemic levels, according to a recent study by fraud management platform Riskified. The study cited latest the report to Congress by the Federal Trade Commission.

The late 2021 study analyzed changes in fraud levels for different categories as observed by Riskified during the 2020 holiday season, benchmarked against January of that year. Cosmetics ranked highest in fraud levels, with a 47% increase in fraud attempts. The sneakers category saw an 8% increase in fraud attempts, and digital services and children’s items rounded out the list, with a 12% and 15% increase in fraud attempts from 2020, respectively.