Juniper Research Highlights Behavioral Biometrics in Fight Against e-Commerce Fraud

“…the increased competition in e-commerce will compel merchants to find low-friction security solutions – the kind of thing offered by behavioral biometrics solutions that are able to passively detect fraud while running in the background during an online shopping session.”

Juniper Research is anticipating steep fraud losses in e-commerce this year. The UK-based market research firm has issued a new report predicting that e-commerce fraud will rise from $17.5 billion in 2020 to more than $20 billion in 2021.

This is, of course, a result of COVID-19. The pandemic has pushed all kinds of commercial activity into digital channels thanks to its attendant social distancing and lockdown protocols, and this has opened up new targets for fraudsters.

Juniper’s researchers argue that stronger safeguards are needed to counteract the fraud trend, highlighting the potential of AI-driven behavioral biometrics solutions in particular. That’s because the increased competition in e-commerce will compel merchants to find low-friction security solutions – the kind of thing offered by behavioral biometrics solutions that are able to passively detect fraud while running in the background during an online shopping session.

“While the need for security is greater than ever, the competitive eCommerce environment means merchants will need to ensure that extra security checks are justified to the user, or they risk higher cart abandonment rates,” explained Susan Morrow, a co-author of the new report.

Entitled “Online Payment Fraud: Emerging Threats, Segment Analysis & Market Forecasts 2021-2025”, the report also looks further into the future. In so doing, it raises some red flags over the Chinese e-commerce landscape. China is expected to account for about 40 percent of all e-commerce fraud losses in 2025, with losses in the region amounting to $12 billion.

The researchers say that China is particularly vulnerable thanks to a relative lack of fraud detection and prevention solutions, and argue that merchants in the country should start investing in security solutions now. That points to a significant market opportunity for behavioral biometrics vendors and other security solutions providers going forward.

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April 26, 2021 – by Alex Perala