The country origins of these international orders favored English speaking and larger eCommerce markets. Eighty-one percent of merchants surveyed that accept orders from abroad said they took orders from the U.K.; 72% from Australia. Following those were Germany (71%), France (68%), and Italy and Mexico (64% each).
Lower incidence of fraud in international orders
Surveyed U.S./Canadian merchants say they saw fraud rates (accepted orders that turned out to be fraudulent) on international business drop 50% in 2009 - from an average of 4% in 2008 to 2% in 2009 (this compares to 1.2% on orders with domestic origins). International orders that were rejected due to suspicion of fraud dropped 30% in 2009, from 10.9% to 7.7%. "These global numbers may be higher than their domestic equivalents, but clearly, more merchants now feel they have the controls in place to better control the risk," added Schwegman.
Some familiar threats still lurking
Even with tighter controls, online fraud remains a concern. According to the survey data, 20% of U.S. and Canadian merchants that take orders from abroad stopped accepting orders from at least one country due to high fraud levels in 2009. Among that group, fully half cited Nigeria and 45% cited Ghana. Other countries high on the watch list included Indonesia and Malaysia (30% each), Iran, Pakistan, Romania and Russia (23% each), and China and Vietnam (20% each).
eCommerce fraud not just an international issue
The survey also outlined some high fraud areas closer to home. Thirty-three percent of merchants stated that New York represented the highest risk of any U.S. or Canadian city when accepting domestic orders. New York was followed by Miami with 19%, and Los Angeles with 10%. Among Canadian cities, 4% of merchants said Montreal and Toronto each represented the highest risk of online fraud.
