Samsonite Improves Order Approval Rates & Eliminates Chargeback Costs with ClearSale

Samsonite Mexico had to manage two major pivots at the start of 2020. “With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic came the closure of many of our physical stores around the world, achieving a dramatic change in consumer travel habits,” said ecommerce manager Cristian Campos. “Travel is the core of our business, and we had to modify our strategy to accommodate customers who were now buying online to work remotely from the beach or the ranch or while staying with relatives. Because of these shifts, it was very important that our customers could have our entire Samsonite catalog within reach.” 

The company’s two websites in Mexico—one for Samsonite and related brands and another for the luxury Tumi brand—attracted shoppers. They also attracted fraudsters who knew how to bypass the basic anti-fraud tools built into the sites’ ecommerce platforms and payment gateways. “In 2022, we had several sales through our Tumi and Samsonite sites that ended up being fraudulent. That cost us around a million pesos, a situation that led us to look for an anti-fraud solution,” Campos said.

The Challenge: Fight Costly Fraud & Strengthen Customer Relationships

Campos needed a partner in fraud prevention that could help Samsonite Mexico avoid costly chargebacks on its websites. However, that prevention could not come at the cost of customer experience by “erring on the side of caution” and generating false declines. 

False declines are a particular problem in the Mexican ecommerce space. In ClearSale’s most recent international online shopper survey, 48% of Mexican consumers said they had experienced an order decline within the past 12 months. That’s nearly twice the 25% average for all consumers in the survey, who were from Mexico, the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia. 

44% of Mexican consumers surveyed by ClearSale said they would never shop again on a site that declined their order, and 45% would post a complaint on social media. So, each decline poses a boycott risk that can reduce customer lifetime value and return on marketing spend—in addition to the order revenue lost to those screening errors.

Within four months of implementing ClearSale’s Total Guaranteed Protection, both the Samsonite and Tumi websites saw higher average order approval rates and a complete elimination of fraud chargeback costs. 

The difference was especially clear during Mexico’s annual Hot Sale ecommerce holiday—a weeklong event from late May to early June featuring dozens of global and local online retailers. “During the most recent Hot Sale, the approval rate on samsonite.com.mx through our payment gateway was 80%, but ClearSale was able to increase it to 96%, and while on tumi.com.mx we reached 100% approval,” Campos said.

With less fraud and more approvals for good customers, Samsonite Mexico’s ecommerce channel is well-positioned for growth. In 2020, the online channel comprised less than 1% of the company’s sales in Mexico. “This year we expect to reach 7.5%, and we’re forecasting growth to 9 or 10% in 2024,” Campos said. “ClearSale’s performance and their willingness to share their expertise to protect our business makes me feel confident that ClearSale is not just a vendor but a valuable partner.”