E-commerce security has never been more top-of-mind for retailers. Security breaches like the one that happened at TJX in 2007 reverberate not only through the media, but also — more importantly — through consumer confidence, for years. Even with an aggressive clean-up strategy, an attack can create lasting damage to a retail brand from which sales may never recover. In the past few years, e-commerce applications have evolved to become more advanced and more intricate in nature.

While financial cybercrime against card-not-present retailers has many forms, “friendly fraud” has emerged as a particularly painful thorn in the side of e-commerce merchants. Defined as a situation in which a customer disputes a legitimate credit card transaction, falsely claiming fraud or non-delivery of goods, friendly fraud is extremely hard for retailers to identify and nearly as costly to their business as criminal fraud. Chargebacks — that is, credits granted when customers dispute transactions — occur for many reasons, but chargebacks for “fraud” are the most common.

The online sales channel continues to grow each day, touching every corner of the globe and nearly every type of merchant or marketplace. A fundamental component to the success of this channel is the payment system — but choosing the right one may seem like a daunting task. One of the first questions to ask is whether to build or buy. Merchants should weigh the pros and cons of each option based upon specific business and market conditions, as well as long-term objectives. It’s important to keep these two questions in mind: Who are my customers? Where do I want to go tomorrow?