Signifyd and Hot Topic team up to speed fulfillment, build peerless customer experience and optimize online revenue

Signifyd, the leading provider of digital commerce protection technology, announced that it has helped the pop culture and music-inspired fashion brand Hot Topic revamp its online order approval process and eliminate false declines.

From the very start, Hot Topic has been the go-to destination for officially licensed entertainment and music merchandise in shopping malls across America. Today, in addition to the 700-plus store locations between Hot Topic and its newest brand BoxLunch, shoppers across the globe flock to HotTopic.com and BoxLunch.com for the latest and greatest in entertainment-driven merchandise.

But the sharp increase in the company’s online sales growth in recent years also burdened its manual fraud review process and resulted in many legitimate orders being mistakenly rejected.

Hot Topic made the decision to replace its manual rules-based assessment process with Signifyd’s Commerce Protection Platform. With the help of insights gleaned from Signifyd’s Commerce Network, the retailer automated 100% of its orders — with dramatic results.

Because nearly all online purchases are made by consumers previously seen across Signifyd’s Commerce Network, the commerce protection provider was able to instantly recognize customers new to Hot Topic as legitimate customers — empowering Hot Topic to turn them into superfans, rather than turn them away entirely. Also, Signifyd’s machine learning models promised full order automation rather than Hot Topic’s previous manual review process, which took up to 24 hours to process orders.

The upshot: Approval rates soared to over 99% while 94% of previously declined orders were subsequently approved, demonstrating the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions compared with the traditional rules-based approach to order reviews that so many retailers still rely on today. After accurately separating fraudulent orders from legitimate ones, Hot Topic benefited from millions of dollars in found revenue as well as a better overall customer experience thanks to Signifyd’s intelligent Commerce Protection Platform.

“The more customer loyalty you earn, the greater fanbase you build,” said Hot Topic and BoxLunch CEO Steve Vranes, noting that a growing customer base means growing demand — and growing demand without sacrificing customer experience requires automation.

“But while we needed to automate order fulfillment for our customers to stay competitive, we couldn’t process the volume of online orders we were receiving while also feeling confident that we were filtering out fraud. So instead, we had to increase manual review before approving orders and that significantly delayed orders for loyal customers.”

Since partnering with Signifyd, Vranes said Hot Topic has reaped “a multimillion-dollar uplift” in annual revenue.

“That doesn’t even begin to capture the additional revenue we will gain from customers who had a great experience and are going to come back and shop more with us,” he added. “And to do that well, we have invested in the best technology to transform every step of our customer experience.”

“With our Commerce Network, we’re able to solve the data gap for customers like Hot Topic,” said Signifyd CEO Raj Ramanand. “Merchants often become the victims of false declines since manual reviewers lack instant insight into a comprehensive shopping history that is the key to understanding the identity and intent behind the order. That’s where Signifyd can help and our 100% financial guarantee against chargebacks on approved orders also removes any liability from the equation. It’s a win all around.”