At PayPal we’re celebrating another great start to 2019 after our first quarter financials were released last month. Alongside the headline 12% increase in revenue was the equally pleasing sight of millions more customers opening accounts with us, including many new merchants. This is further proof that businesses across the globe trust the PayPal platform as an engine that aids digital growth and success, whilst helping them manage the risks that have become commonplace for so many organizations operating online today.

Going forward, we’ll continue to improve these capabilities and build on our two-decade heritage in online payments to provide a platform for digital growth for our customers.

The road to digital success

Digital transformation is driving innovation and growth wherever you look. From financial services to retail, businesses are leveraging cloud, mobile, IoT and other technologies to become more efficient and get closer to their customers. It’s no surprise that the market for digital technology is set to be worth $2.3tr by 2025.¹ Plus, as of last year, 89% of organizations have plans to adopt a digital-first business strategy, according to IDC.² Yet many are finding out that with greater online exposure comes unwanted extra attention from digital fraudsters.

The challenge is particularly acute in the world of e-commerce, where there are multiple opportunities for the scammers to generate revenue by impersonating legitimate customers. Using breached identity data, automated tools, and the anonymizing cover of the internet, they are hijacking customer accounts, using stolen cards to make purchases, creating new accounts in real or synthetic identities, and much more.

If left unchecked, this kind of fraud can not only hit the bottom line through direct chargeback costs and increased operational overheads, but also damage a brand’s reputation, leading to customer attrition and further losses. Such challenges can put a barrier in the way of digital transformation and growth.

An expert partner

The truth is that most online merchants aren’t in the business of risk management. That’s why they need expert help from a trusted partner that can provide seamless digital payment solutions. But an increasingly important part of this offering is risk-based fraud prevention designed to help minimize fraud losses for businesses without impacting the customer journey.

In fact, right from the very start almost 20 years ago PayPal’s founders realized that fraud was one of the main barriers to e-commerce growth and must be combatted head on. Our commitment to fighting fraud and managing risk for our customers continues to this day with the acquisition of Simility. Its Adaptive Decisioning Platform was recently named one of only three best-in-class machine learning fraud and AML solutions by Aite Group.³

As we continue to grow, we know that risk is never far away. As online fraud continues to evolve, our capabilities will too, providing organizations around the world with the reassurance they need to build successful digital businesses.

¹ PR Newswire, https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-digital-transformation-market-2018-2025—key-players-are-microsoft-oracle-accenture-and-google-300669305.html

² IDC, https://resources.idg.com/download/white-paper/2018-digital-business?hsCtaTracking=0e45fea0-22ec-40e4-9408-ac5ce60e7d1d%7Ca4c6ab9d-9cf1-4ee6-bf66-398a5357d2ba

³ Simility, https://simility.com/blog/recent-report-validates-similitys-customer-first-strategy-2/