Leading UK Online Retailer Shop Direct Uses FICO Technology to Help Prevent Fraud

UK's second-largest pure-play online retailer is upgrading fraud protection across its leading brands websites

LONDON, March 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- FICO, the predictive analytics and decision management software company, today announced that Shop Direct, the UK's second-largest pure-play online retailer, has had great success fighting multiple types of credit fraud using FICO technology and FICO analytics. The FICO fraud solution provides Shop Direct with further protection against first-party and third-party credit fraud, including application fraud.

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Shop Direct's enterprise fraud management solution, built using the FICO^® Decision Management Suite, monitors every online purchase on the group's retail sites, Very.co.uk, Littlewoods.com and VeryExclusive.co.uk. Customers have several options for making online purchases, including interest-free credit and instalment payments. The FICO solution scores each transaction in real time, comparing multiple facets of the transaction against the customer's profile to detect unusual patterns. The solution also scores new applications for credit. Shop Direct's fraud team can then define review rates, policy rules and flash fraud rules using FICO^® Blaze Advisor^® decision rules management system.

"As the UK's second-largest pure-play online retailer, we're protecting not only our revenues and our customers but also our brands," said Neil Chandler, Shop Direct's CEO for Financial Services. "We have a very successful partnership with FICO for fraud protection, customer management and decision optimization. FICO analytics and tools are exactly what we need to protect our customers.

"We have been running the new FICO solution for more than 18 months and the performance over this time period has been consistently impressive. By adding FICO tools to our existing armory of internal and external fraud tools, we are detecting in excess of 95 percent of fraud cases at a review rate of only 3 percent."

"We've developed a custom solution for Shop Direct that is state-of-the-art for retail fraud protection," noted Steve Hadaway, FICO managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. "Shop Direct is known as an innovator throughout Europe, and we're proud to help them offer their growing customer base a safe, value-added online shopping experience."

FICO was cited as a leader in enterprise fraud management by independent research firm Forrester in its report The Forrester Wave(TM): Enterprise Fraud Management, Q1 2016. The FICO^® Falcon^® Platform protects 2.6+ billion payment cards worldwide.

About FICO
FICO (NYSE: FICO) is a leading analytics software company, helping businesses in 100+ countries make better decisions that drive higher levels of growth, profitability and customer satisfaction. The company's groundbreaking use of Big Data and mathematical algorithms to predict consumer behavior has transformed entire industries. FICO provides analytics software and tools used across multiple industries to manage risk, fight fraud, build more profitable customer relationships, optimize operations and meet strict government regulations. Many of our products reach industry-wide adoption. These include the FICO® Score, the standard measure of consumer credit risk in the United States. FICO solutions leverage open-source standards and cloud computing to maximize flexibility, speed deployment and reduce costs. The company also helps millions of people manage their personal credit health. For FICO news and media resources, visit www.fico.com/news.

FICO, Blaze Advisor and Falcon are trademarks or registered trademarks of Fair Isaac Corporation in the United States and in other countries.

About Shop Direct
Shop Direct is the UK's second-largest pure-play online retailer, with annual sales of £1.8 billion. Our digital department store brands are Very.co.uk, Littlewoods.com and VeryExclusive.co.uk, and receive an average of 1 million website visits a day, with more than 60% of online sales completed on mobile devices.

We exist to make good things easily accessible to more people. With our department store range of famous brands, market-leading ecommerce and technology capabilities and unique financial services products offering flexible ways to pay, we're well placed to deliver on that promise. We sell more than 1,100 famous brands, including big name labels and our own exclusive brands.

We have 4 million customers and deliver 48 million products every year. Our free click and collect service delivers to 5,800 stores across the country, increasing ease and convenience for customers.

For more information on Shop Direct, visit www.shopdirect.com or follow us on Twitter at @ShopDirect