Many retailers in Apac are still trying to stop fraud at the payment stage, even as the damage often starts earlier in the customer journey. A new Built to Sell, Not Defend report says 65% of APAC retailers still rely on fraud protections at checkout, where problems are already visible but often harder to undo.
That matters because Visa said 47% of APAC consumers would either abandon a purchase or switch merchants if they hit card issues at checkout. For retailers, that means the place they are trying to defend can also be the place where they lose the sale. The report’s message is that fraud in Apac is not just a transaction problem anymore; it is a business problem that reaches into marketing, loyalty and returns.
The biggest threats reflect that shift. Promotion and discount abuse leads APAC retail fraud at 32.1%, followed by account takeovers at 26.2%, loyalty or rewards abuse at 22.6% and return fraud at 8.3%. The report says promotion abuse can make customer acquisition campaigns look stronger than they are, while loyalty abuse can blur the line between real repeat engagement and account misuse.
That leaves many retailers trying to protect the sale after the customer has already made up their mind. Fraud often gets attention only when it appears in a transaction, but the report links that late response to customer friction, distorted data and weaker decisions about how to spend, what to promote and which customers to trust.
The real issue is not whether Apac retailers are checking for fraud. It is whether they are checking in the right place. As long as the controls sit at the end of the journey, the losses keep shaping the numbers before anyone notices them.