Prevents Fraud
Credit card and bank fraud are huge problems for the e-commerce sector. A survey by CyberSource found that online stores lost 0.8 percent of their annual revenue because of fraudulent payments. So how can location data help stop this loss of profits?
For one, it can detect when purchasers are located far away from their delivery addresses. While these might be legitimate purchases, this is one of the most common signs of fraud. Additionally, location data can show when a customer makes multiple orders from multiple locations in a short span of time.
Helps Assign Accurate Sales Tax
Sales taxes vary widely between states in North America. Some states, like Delaware, don’t charge any at all. Other states, like California, charge a whopping 7.25 percent. To prevent yourself from getting in trouble with these jurisdictions, you need accurate location data to ensure you are collecting the appropriate amount from each customer. This is where address verification comes into play. By ensuring the address the customer is inputting is valid, you will know exactly what to charge them.
Provides Prices in the Local Currency
Are you currently serving international customers? Even if you aren’t, there’s a good chance you might in the future, as our study indicated that 44 percent of firms will serve global regions in the next three years. When you do service foreign customers, you want your prices to be transparent and clear in their local currency. For example your default prices might be in USD, its important to make sure that you’re using location data to convert this into their local currency during the checkout process.
Offers Accurate Shipping Estimates
Around 95 percent of customers say the price of shipping influences their online purchases. By collecting location data as soon as customers start adding items to their carts, you can instantly provide them with the estimated shipping cost without making them go through every step of the checkout process. They’ll appreciate the ease and simplicity of knowing what their actual total will be and may be more likely to commit to the purchase.
As you can see, location data plays a big role in providing customers with a simplified checkout process. When you’re ready to take the next step, contact Loqate to learn more about our address verification systems.
