Survey: The top payment technology issue for retailers in 2021 is…

More than eight in 10 retailers agree on the most important payment solution they plan to invest in during the coming year.

According to a recent survey of over 100 retail payment professionals conducted by payment processing technology provider T1 Payments, 83% of respondents rank fraud and chargeback prevention as the most important payment technologies for 2021. Chargebacks happen when a customer reports a problem with a transaction to his or her card issuer and requests a refund.

Ninety-one percent of respondents expect investments in fraud prevention to grow, and 94% say that they have noticed a rise in fraud attacks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, only 28% of respondents rank contactless payments as the most important payment technology.

Looking back on the 2020 holiday season, more than half (55%) of respondents said credit card-testing fraud was a top factor impacting the payment industry. This method is used to obtain, steal, or purchase stolen credit card data and test it on e-commerce websites by placing multiple small orders all at once. This allows scammers to verify which cards are active, have available credit, and have not been reported, which can lead to high-cost orders down the line.

Comparatively, only 16% of respondents cited gift card fraud and only 13% mentioned refund fraud as top factors during the recently concluded holiday period.

The survey also asked respondents about their expectations for social and digital commerce during 2021:

•    More than 96% expect social commerce to grow in the coming year, with 57% of those respondents expecting “significant growth.”
•    Respondents also expect to see a boom in digital payments like Apple Pay (37%) and social commerce platforms like Facebook Marketplace (28%). Comparatively, not as many respondents said the same about buy now, pay later software (20%), or peer-to-peer payment software such as Venmo (15%).