2020: Delivery agent scams Amazon off Rs. 27,000 (Source: https://www.deccanherald.com/city/bengaluru-crime/fir-against-amazon-delivery-boy-for-returning-fake-products-794970.html)
2021: Amazon duped off Rs. 20 lakhs in phone return fraud
These are just a few cases of many where ecommerce platforms have fallen prey to scams from both sellers and delivery agents. From ever-increasing competition, to maintaining customer loyalty, to preventing identity theft, there are many challenges and stresses for businesses in the ecommerce sector. But user verification needn’t be one of them. India’s ecommerce market is set to grow by 21.5% in 2022 (Source: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technology/indias-ecommerce-market-to-grow-by-21-5-in-2022-globaldata/articleshow/89038696.cms), and a boom in business means an increase in the number of sellers and delivery agents your business interacts with. Which also means your business is at higher risk. Between 2016-19, there was “a 500% jump in online shopping fraud”. (Source: https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/sme/ecommerce-fraud-ecommerce-fakes-online-fraud-fake-products-amazon-flipkart-fake-products-consumer-protection-act-ecommerce-policy/1791187/) And fraud isn’t limited just to affecting buyers, it can directly impact you and your ecommerce platform: digital verification is no longer optional, but essential to running a thriving online business.
The attacks can come from every side: delivery agent scams are a dime a dozen, but even sellers have the potential to scam platforms off crores. Refund scams, for example, are becoming increasingly common; Amazon was recently involved in a long-term scam, beginning in 2013, where a seller swindled the company off $1.3 million. (Source: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-feels-like-a-scam-third-party-seller-admits-to-stealing-1-3-million-from-amazon-in-elaborate-fake-sale-and-refund-fraud-11647968698) These sort of attacks don’t affect just businesses, but can also trickle down and grossly impact customer experience. There are a plethora of verifications that you can undertake to safeguard your business, but conventional methods can be slow and tedious. Digital verification offers its user real-time security checking by utilising the power of artificial intelligence and componentized information from government identity documents and databases to ensure a full spectrum of protection for your ecommerce business. OCR features ensure that the information is accurate and results are quick.
These preventative security measures serve to enhance positive behaviours across the platform by adding credibility to the information furnished by your sellers, protecting you as well as your customers. And it has never been easier: with the added benefit of API integration, the process of introducing digital verification to your platform can ensure a smooth and seamless transition. API integration also ensures a continuous verification process, triggering repeat verifications at regular intervals to ensure the accreditation of your sellers and delivery fleet. Here’s how digital verification can help safeguard your business:
Digital Identity Verification
Using facial recognition and OCR, you can compare the presented data with a verified data set – we are talking real-time verification on PAN, Aadhaar, driver’s licence, passport and voter’s ID. These verifications let you know you are working with real people, thereby reducing the risk of scams and identity falsification. A high volume of business doesn’t mean you have to compromise on safety.
Digital Address Verification
With sellers and drivers operating or hailing from all across the country, traceability and address verification becomes vital. The digital address verification system harnesses the power of GPS metadata and collaborates seamlessly with the inbuilt AI, bringing in a higher level of accuracy, and an audit trail.
Driving Licence Verification
Whether you choose to outsource your delivery to an agency, or maintain your own fleet of delivery partners, driving licence verification can bypass a lot of stress and headache for your business. Drivers with fake licences can easily be vetted, ensuring a higher level of safety for your business, your seller, and your customer.
Legal Verification
In the interest of saving your business valuable time and effort, legal verification ensures that sellers you might choose to work with have no pending court cases filed against them.
Credit Score Check
Ensuring your sellers have a clean financial track record is crucial, especially when you are looking to increase the value and volume of your business’s transactions. A simple credit score check can mitigate the financial risks of onboarding new, unknown sellers.
Verifying sellers and delivery agents has so many benefits: from reducing reputational and financial risks to onboarding dubious sellers and delivery agents, to a reduced turnaround time, you can improve your service pipeline and direct company resources to areas that can better benefit your growing business. Verification is now a simple process that can make for better, more efficient business practices.