International fraud protection leader ClearSale is expanding its presence in Australia to support rapid ecommerce growth.

ClearSale’s client base in Australia is poised to grow by 40% during 2020, following a 60% increase from 2018 to 2019. Ecommerce is expected to comprise 15% of Australia’s total retail market by year-end, five years ahead of projections for that level of growth, according to the Australia Post 2020 Ecommerce Industry Report.

To oversee the expansion, ClearSale has appointed Ralph Kooi as country manager for Australia. Based in Sydney, Kooi brings extensive management experience in business development, marketing and sales in the Australian market.

“We’re excited to offer Australian merchants the benefit of Ralph’s knowledge as the country’s e-commerce volume and customer base expand,” ClearSale executive vice president, Rafael Lourenco said.

“With his track record of growing Mastersoft Group’s customer base and helping GBG customers scale their businesses, we know Ralph is the right person to help ClearSale’s Australian clients maximise their revenue, strengthen their customer relationships and grow their online retail businesses.”

Commenting on his appointment, Kooi said: “There’s no denying that the landscape of ecommerce in Australia has made some significant leaps forward in the past few months. Nobody could have predicted the increase of orders and first-time online buyers that required many merchants to quickly rethink their strategy and communication.

“I’ve always had a special interest in and love for the ecommerce industry, and I’m excited about working with ClearSale’s partners to help them increase their online sales while protecting them from the increase in online fraud in Australia and around the world.”

A recent survey commissioned by ClearSale found that the possibility of online scams deters almost half (45%) of Australian consumers from shopping online, and 38% have already experienced online fraud.

However, Australian shoppers don’t want more friction in their online buying experience with 44% abandoning purchases because checkout was too long or complex, and 40% have ditched an online cart because the merchant required them to create an account before they could pay. 

And Australian shoppers are far less forgiving of rejection than fraud with 38% saying they’ll never shop with a merchant again after a rejected order, but only 8% said they’ll never shop with a merchant after a fraud experience in their store.

“For ecommerce merchants to avoid fraud and retain customers, they need more than machine-learning tools that automatically screen orders,” Kooi said.

“They also need expert analysts who can quickly review suspicious screened orders to avoid rejecting good customers while preventing fraud. I’m eager to show Australian retailers how they can use this combination of approaches to protect their revenue and customer lifetime value.”