Protect Your Customers from Holiday Scams with Identity Protection

unconcerned with holiday scams

During the holiday season sales for retailers typically see a huge spike, accounting for as much as 30 percent of some retailers’ annual sales. In fact, in 2015 the National Retailer Federation (NRF) estimated that holiday sales reached $630.5 billion! With the increased spending this time of year, it can be easy for customers to overlook fraudulent charges, elevating their threat of falling victim to holiday scams and identity fraud.

Impact of Falling Victim to Holiday Scams

Every year for the past four years, December and January have seen higher than usual victim reports of financial identity theft to the Identity Theft Resource Center call center. The financial impact to victims of identity fraud can be significant, over $15 billion in fraud was stolen last year according to the 2016 Javelin Identity Fraud report. However, victims aren’t just financially impacted, they also experience emotional and physical reactions, including:

56% feel rage or anger,
48% report sleep disturbances, and
37% are unable to concentrate.

The risk and effects of identity theft and fraud are frightening, but with the overspending that 40% of Americans feel “pressured” to do and family travel planned for this season, protecting personally identifiable information is often not top of mind for most of your customers, and neither is the value your company brings to their lives. So, what can your company do to make sure your services aren’t considered disposable if your customers start looking for services to cut back on to free up some holiday spending cash? Smart companies are offering identity protection services that build loyalty and reinforce value, especially during customers’ busiest times.

Giving the Gift of Peace of Mind

According to AAA, over 50 million Americans are projected to travel during the 2017 holiday season, a 3.3 percent increase over last year and the NRF projected that spending increased between 3.6 and 4 percent during the 2017 holiday season as well. These metrics illustrate just how a busy time of year the holidays are for your customers. They are likely struggling to remember day-to-day details, like visiting family members’ food allergies, so you can bet they probably won’t recall how your service adds value to their lives. However, it is just this hecticness that makes the holidays the best time to be a provider of identity protection. To break through the season’s noise, it’s critical to select a partner-focused identity protection service provider, whose product will have frequent touch points with your customers, offering them information and services that they will find valuable. The regular messaging your identity protection partner sends, and marketing support they provide your company, will remind your customers that you are constantly protecting their data and identity, enabling them to get through the season with one less thing to worry about – falling victim to holiday scams.

Benefiting from the Holiday Spending Bump: a Win-Win

Traditionally, holiday spending spikes are associated with toys, electronics and clothing retailers. However, with the improved labor market, rise in disposable income and surveyed Americans reportedly planning to spend an average of $572 on non-gift spending this holiday season, other service providers shouldn’t assume their company can’t experience a holiday revenue bump as well. Identity theft protection has great revenue potential, with over $3 billion spent on it in 2015 and projected to grow. However, the key to companies that don’t offer services typically given as gifts getting a piece of the holiday spending pie is to offer an identity theft protection service from a partner that offers a product with strong revenue potential and marketing support. As mentioned above, customers aren’t likely to have digital and identity protection on their mind during this busy time of year but a good partner will offer marketing support materials and tailored consulting, to help your company sell this high-value product to your customers prior to the height of the holiday season, so customers don’t have to add holiday scams to their list of worries this time of year. Furthermore, a competitive partner will offer your company an identity protection product that fits your customer needs, at a competitive price, and consult with you on resale pricing that will allow you to be competitive while maximizing revenue and value.

The holidays are a busy time of year for your customers. However, choosing the right identity protection partner will ensure your company is armed with the right product and support to provide customers with the peace-of-mind they want to enter the new year worry-free and your company with extra cash during the time of year your employees want it most. For more identity protection insights, sign up for email updates.