Riskified, Ltd., a fraud management platform enabling frictionless E-commerce, and Axerve, a leading Italy-based payments hub that has developed a platform for orchestrating payments worldwide, has launched an extended strategic partnership to offer Riskified’s machine learning solutions, including PSD2 Optimize, to Axerve’s portfolio of customers. One of Axerve’s first clients to implement PSD2 Optimize, KIKO Milano, saw an exemption of nearly 99% of orders from Strong Customer Authorization (SCA) using Transaction Risk Analysis (TRA) and a more than 10% increase in approval rates for transactions.

Compliance with the European Union’s PSD2 regulations and SCA requirements has added complexity for merchants, PSD2 Optimize enables merchants to minimize the effect of the European Union’s PSD2 regulations on their Ecommerce by leveraging TRA exemptions to provide a seamless and secure payment experience for legitimate users and low-risk orders and for the use of 3D Secure payments (3DS)* to be applied only when it’s necessary. At a time when eCommerce continues growing, ensuring friction-free solutions is vital to improving the shopping experience for consumers and the collection experience for merchants.

PSD2: the double-edged sword of customer experience

Axerve works with over 100,000 customers globally, and its ultimate goal is to simplify complex checkout processes for its clients while guaranteeing high-security standards. When PSD2 came into force, eCommerce merchants across Europe immediately felt its effect on the customer journey: friction added to the checkout flow caused shoppers to abandon their carts, which negatively affected conversion rates. KIKO, in particular, experienced a high volume of support tickets from customers complaining they couldn’t complete their purchase. With almost 70% of orders challenged by 3DS, accompanied by a high decline rate, they realized they needed a tool to optimize their checkout process and safeguard revenue - while also ensuring full compliance with the regulation.

The Riskified approach: more optimization for less friction

To help merchants overcome the challenges imposed by PSD2, Axerve introduced Riskified PSD2 Optimize as part of its payment processing platform: Axerve Guaranteed Payment. KIKO Milano, a long-time Axerve client, has historically championed investing in new solutions to enhance customer experience and had been looking for a fraud prevention solution to reduce fraud costs and increase conversion rates.

“When PSD2 went live, Axerve notified us that our denied transactions rate was quickly increasing, and our customer care team also alerted us that the number of tickets opened by customers was multiplying four-fold,” said Diego Morgandi, Ecommerce Director at KIKO Milano. “We were glad to hear about Riskified’s solution from Axerve, and we immediately wanted to test it. The benefits from PSD2 Optimize were immediate. We saw a reduction in failed transactions that drove the approval rate up and allowed us to grant our customers a real frictionless checkout experience.  This partnership is key for us to succeed.”

In an environment as complex as the payments ecosystem, flexibility and innovation are fundamental to satisfy the increasing need for protection in the whole payment process while making it as friction-free and seamless as possible while being secure and compliant. Riskified’s solutions help eCommerce merchants safely approve more orders, increase revenue, expand into new markets, and deliver a better customer experience. Thanks to the partnership with Axerve, Ecommerce merchants from various industries in Europe can now enjoy Riskified’s PSD2 Optimize solution to leverage exemptions and ensure a frictionless payment experience for their customers.

“As a partner for our clients in the world of payments, it is our duty to always offer the most innovative solutions that allow us to guarantee our clients the best possible authorization rate,” said Alessandro Bocca CEO of Axerve. “The initial phase of the PSD2 adoption was difficult since the system and the industry were not equipped for the challenge, both in managing the authentication part and also on the issuer side to manage exemptions which led to a high loss in conversions. The challenge of the SCA, and in general of fraud management, has become an opportunity after being able to join forces with Riskified, best in class on fraud prevention.” 

“When PSD2 was introduced, we knew that our merchants and partners needed an immediate solution. They needed to comply with the regulation and implement 3D-secure and at the same time, leverage exemptions in order to improve their customer experience. In order for a merchant to maximize exemptions, they have to perform a transaction risk analysis and identify those low-risk orders. And this is exactly the capability that Riskified possesses as we’ve been perfecting this in the last decade” said Naama Ofek Ard, Chief Operating Officer at Riskified. “At the end of the day, the goal of everyone involved is to provide higher conversion rates to our merchants and a smooth experience for their customers, and this partnership is a testament to our mission and our capabilities.”