How To Boost Conversion Rates, While Lowering Merchant Account
By Eric Graham, Sat Dec 10th

Using an Address Verification System (AVS) when processing youronline credit card transactions can help to reduce the number offraudulent transactions you receive. However, most onlinemerchants don’t know that using AVS can also reduce your numberof legitimate orders.

Using AVS can hurt your conversion rates in two main ways.

1. If you set your AVS rules to reject all transactions that donot match both street address and zip code, you may be loosinglegitimate sales from customers who do not understand that thebilling address needs to match the address that their creditcard statement is mailed to.

2. The more troublesome problem with AVS occurs when yourcustomer has recently moved. Even if you update your billingaddress with your credit card company after you move, it cantake up to 6 months or longer for them to update the AVSdatabase with your new information (even though they make surethat the bill arrives at the right address!)

The worst part about this delay is that often customers willblame the merchant if their card gets rejected for this reason.If their credit card bill arrives at the right address, theyassume that their credit card company updated their information.When a card that they know should work gets rejected by yourwebsite, they often become angry with you, not their cardprovider!

This happened to me recently. I moved my family into a largerhome over eight months ago and the debit card that I use formost of my online purchases still gets rejected unless I use myold address, even though the bank statement has come toour new address from day one!

The solution to the first problem is quite easy. Simply makesure that you use a statement near your “Billing Address” fieldstelling your customers something along the lines of, “To speedprocessing of your order, please ensure your addressmatches the address on your credit card statement.”

Include this type of statement near your “Billing Address”fields and your AVS matches will improve.

In markets with historically low attempted fraud rates, you canalso try loosening your AVS rules a bit. Most AVS systems checkboth the number in the street address and the zip code. Bysetting your AVS rules to accept transactions that match foronly one



of the two AVS numbers, but still rejectingtransactions that do not match for both, you can improve thenumber of successful transactions. If you attempted fraud rateis very low you can even try accepting transactions that failboth AVS checks, but flag the transactions for additional followup before shipping.

Before loosening your AVS rules, you need to understand thatmost merchant account providers classify transactions that donot match for both street address and zip code as“non-qualified” transactions. These transactions usually getcharged a higher discount rate than your normal discount rate.Depending on you merchant account agreement this penalty can addup to an additional 2% above your normal discount rate, so checkwith your merchant account provider before accepting “no match”transactions.

The solution to the second problem take a little bit more workto implement, however it can significantly reduce the number ofAVS mismatches you receive. For this solution you can keep yourAVS system set to reject “no match” transactions, however youneed to modify your “Card Rejected” error page to include abrief educational statement, such as the one below.

“We’re sorry, your credit card has been declined. This canhappen for several reasons. Your address* should matchthe address on your credit card statement. Please check yourbilling address, card number and expiration date and try again.

*NOTE: If you have recently moved, your credit card company maynot have updated your address in their AddressVerification Database. It can take up to 6 months or longer forsome credit card companies to update your address, even if theysend your bill to your new address. If you have recently moved,try using your previous address when you check out.”

By making just a few changes in the way you use AVS at your website and by educating your customers about address verification,you can boost your conversion rates and sales, while loweringyour merchant account fees!

About the author:Want to improve your conversion rates? Eric Graham is the CEO ofseveral successful online companies. Internationally recognizedas a top authority on eCommerce & Website Conversion , he's anin-demand speaker & consultant.

Visit www.web-site-evaluations.com today for an in-depth evaluation to boost YOUR websitesconversion rate!

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