The 2023 Outlook: Opportunities & Threats for digital goods

“Fraud has remained a constant threat to merchants. Especially over the last years, when due to the pandemic, a massive increase in cybercrime (including payment fraud) accompanied the spikes in eCommerce transactions. With the pandemic behind us, the fraud rates did not plummet, but grew even more, and we expect this trend to continue in 2023 and even further.

Payment fraud is more and more moving toward “organized crime” and away from individuals trying to make a few bucks. When dealing with payment fraud, we have to step away from the idea that this is a Nerd in a hoodie who is trying to get access to accounts by trying multiple passwords etc. but really focus on the threat coming from “organizations” that have the tooling, fund, capabilities and knowledge to do serious harm.

So, not only are fraudsters getting better organized and smarter, the focus towards ‘easily monetized products’ grows on products like virtual anonymized credit cards we experience fraud rates of 50%-70% on given periods. Virtual credit cards and other high-risk products like gift cards are easy to monetize and resell and are definitely on the radar upcoming year for fraudsters.

The good news? Not only are the fraudsters getting smarter, but by introducing new tools like machine learning algorithms and adding more unique data points, our systems are also increasing in their ability to catch newly set-up fraud attempts.

Our team spends a lot of their time investigating fraud attacks, learning from them, and using that intelligence to improve the systems. We are very proud that we can still outsmart fraudsters, and protect our merchants from fraudulent transactions.”

“The opportunities I see for sellers of digital goods are blockchain adoption, and utilizing NFTs for proof of ownership for various digital assets, such as concert tickets, 3D models, etc. The biggest threat I see is a possible oversaturation of the market. As we come off the recent NFT hype, sellers will eventually figure out the right ways to do business with this technology. For merchants, this rise of new stores and businesses, would also mean more things to pay attention to, and more competitors to differentiate from.”

“We all see online transactions increasing rapidly, thanks to changing customer behaviour and the pandemic-related ecommerce boost. Also, for digital goods, the volumes are increasing at a high pace, which from a commercial perspective, is very positive. However, the rate of online fraud on digital goods is increasing at maybe an even higher rate. To make sure the online growth of online sales for digital goods stays positive, a solid anti-fraud solution is crucial.”

“The Buy Now Pay Later trend will grow tremendously, so sellers should start to adapt to this new trend. Another payment opportunity is allowing users to pay in instalments without added interest. Sellers who also allow for this will experience more sales, since users will be able to afford more things with instalment plans.”

“This will be a challenging year for sellers of digital goods/services as they face reduced margins (due to increasing costs), and the potential for slower growth. Moreover, while changes in consumer behaviour will impact steady subscription payments (missed, delayed, cancelled), there is also the potential for a drop in average spending. Payment collection and fraud prevention will be two key areas of interest in 2023. Cost-effective and efficient solutions with a scalable model will be needed in order to maximize profits.”

“In 2023 I see a great demand arising for indemnified SEPA payments and protected direct banking payments like iDeal and Paydirekt. SEPA and direct or online banking payments are still the most popular payment methods in Europe, and this will not change. The rising popularity of open banking is supporting this growth. Our new hybrid Protectmaxx anti-fraud system is better than ever and able to support this development.”

“Fraud can never be completely prevented, but you can minimize it drastically if you use a good working fraud prevention tool. In 2022, we were, for example, able to reduce the number of support requests related to fraud and hope to continue this trend in the coming year.

At Alphacomm, we value the opinion of our customers. We learn from their feedback and requests for support, and over the years we have been able to optimize our system with the help of their feedback. Partly because of this, we have grown as a company. We are doing well, we are making more sales, but the number of customer support calls is falling. That’s a very good trend, with which we are very happy.”

“For 2023 the focus will be very much on optimizing payment options. Therefore, our team needs to focus on providing high-quality payment products which are aligned with the market needs. The year’s biggest opportunities will be BNPL and Digital Wallets. 

In 2023, budgets will be tight, and money spent buying digital goods will not be an exception. BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) will allow shoppers to stretch their budgets and maintain buying habits despite the pressure of inflation. 

As for digital wallets, their ease of use, fast payment features, and overall convenience has made their adoption rates grow exponentially. This payment method will be preferred also, since 3DS2 and 2FA are now mandatory when customers choose card payments. On the other hand, the growing adoption of 3DS2 protocols and advances in card tokenization means that the fraud for card-based payments will also be lower this year.”

“When it comes to e-commerce and purchasing various goods and services online, mobile shoppers are on the rise, with an estimated 300 million mobile internet users in 2023. To truly resonate with the digital goods and services market in 2023, we’ll see our brands continue to think outside the box in order to better understand and connect with our most valued customers.”