Tampa Bay, FL (PRWEB)
July 13, 2015
According to Forrester Research, affiliate marketing—which has been found to favorably increase consumer perception of brands (1)—is expected to grow to $ 4.5 billion in 2016, (2) making the technique all the more lucrative for businesses. However, affiliate marketing is ripe for fraud and comes with great risk. COO of leading dispute mitigation and loss prevention firm Chargebacks911, Monica Eaton-Cardone, will address some of these risks while speaking at the upcoming Affiliate Summit East 2015 on Monday, August 3, at 3:15 p.m. Her presentation will cover affiliate fraud trends and how to prevent affiliate fraud from occurring. Eaton-Cardone’s solo speaking session will take place at Booth #7008 during the summit.
By speaking at the Affiliate Summit East 2015, Eaton-Cardone hopes to help others learn from her mistakes. Eaton-Cardone had a successful online business due to the power of affiliate marketing, and had been turning a steady profit in a competitive niche. However, affiliate marketing fraud in the form of chargebacks slowly chipped away at her business until it came crumbling down. This motivated Eaton-Cardone to found Chargebacks911 for the purpose of helping to protect other merchants from suffering the same unfortunate experience.
“When the survival of your business is at stake, preventing affiliate fraud takes on a sense of urgency,” says Eaton-Cardone.
Affiliate fraud can often result from an affiliate using stolen credit card numbers; the cardholders then demand a rightful refund, leaving the merchant at fault. Additionally, affiliates can pull a bait-and-switch on the consumer; as in the first scenario, when the consumer files a chargeback, the merchant is left holding the bag. Eaton-Cardone says that there are two chargeback reason codes which are often linked to affiliate fraud: “unauthorized transaction” and “products not as described or services not rendered.” During the Affiliate Summit East 2015, Eaton-Cardone will discuss how chargebacks occur within these two parameters.
Eaton-Cardone will also discuss six simple steps to prevent affiliate fraud and chargebacks, including the fact that merchants should review chargeback reason codes in order to help understand what kind of fraud is being perpetrated. Eaton-Cardone also advises choosing affiliate networks carefully, and monitoring those affiliates.
“The more you can educate yourself as a merchant, the more you can prevent affiliate fraud from taking place,” says Eaton-Cardone. “There are many tools a merchant can use to make themselves less at risk; we learned these tools over the years, and unfortunately, a lot of them were learned the hard way. I want to make it so that no merchant has to experience what we experienced.”
Affiliate Summit East 2015 will take place August 2-4, 2015, at the New York Marriott Marquis in New York City. This three-day conference included an exhibit hall with affiliates, merchants, vendors and networks, as well as multiple tracks of educational sessions covering the latest trends and information from affiliate marketing experts. More information is available at http://www.affiliatesummit.com/15e-conference/.
Eaton-Cardone is available for interviews and other speaking engagements. Interested parties should contact Karla Jo Helms at JoTo PR, 818-202-4614 ext. 802.
About Global Risk Technologies and Chargebacks911:
Global Risk Technologies is most known for its role in payment processing solutions that cater to each side of the value chain: Chargebacks911.com and eConsumerservices.com. The firm is headquartered in Tampa Bay, Florida, with offices in Ireland and Atlanta. They have approximately 350 employees worldwide and currently manage over 150MM in transactions each month, with clients located in the U.S. and Europe.
Chargebacks911 is a division of Global Risk Technologies, and was developed specifically for merchants to offer immediate aid through proprietary technology and provide the necessary function that gives merchants the freedom to focus on their core competency and optimize their in-house skill set. Chargebacks911 focuses on chargeback mitigation and risk management. They specialize in servicing Internet merchants and acquiring banks, offering dispute response solutions and deep analytics. Chargebacks911 works with their client base to help them keep dispute rates down and retain their ability to accept credit cards. For more information, visit http://www.chargebacks911.com.
1. Prussakov, Geno. “Affiliate Marketing Spend to Reach 4.5B in 2016 and Other Findings by Forrester Consulting”; Am Navigator. amnavigator.com/blog/2012/07/04/forrester-predicts-affiliate-marketing-spend-of-4-5-billion-by-2016/.
2. Dietrich, Liane. “Affiliate Marketing Turns 20: Myths, Milestones & Momentum”; Marketing Land; April 18, 2014. marketingland.com/affiliate-marketing-turns-20-myths-milestones-momentum-80485.