Suspected digital fraud attempts on a given day between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday were 82% higher globally than during the rest of the year, and 127% higher in the U.S., TransUnion reported Thursday. Some 15% of all global e-commerce transactions reviewed between Thanksgiving and Monday were potentially fraudulent, 18% in the U.S. Promotion abuse and account takeover were the leading fraud attempt types, it said. Online retailers need the proper tools to detect fraud at the first warning sign “without inhibiting the consumer journey,” said Cecilia Seiden, vice president-retail business.

Apple AirPods and the Nintendo Switch were top-selling electronics at Amazon, in addition to Amazon’s own highly discounted devices, over the Thanksgiving shopping weekend, the e-commerce company said Wednesday. It was the company’s biggest Thanksgiving shopping weekend ever, it said, without disclosing sales figures. Small businesses generated more than $1 billion in sales via Amazon, it said. Best-selling categories were home, fashion, toys, beauty and Amazon devices, it said. In an expanded holiday sales season, which began with Amazon’s Prime Early Access Sale in October, it extended its standard returns window temporarily until Jan. 31 for most items bought Oct. 11-Dec. 25 in the U.S. The extension applies to products shipped by or fulfilled by Amazon, it said.

Freebie bots, which automatically scan retail websites for mispriced goods and services, are a growing threat for online retailers, said cybersecurity solutions provider Kasada Tuesday. Its research found over 250 retailers were recently targeted by freebie bots, with over 7 million messages sent monthly in freebie communities. In one community, members used bots to buy nearly 100,000 products in a month at a value of $3.4 million, but the total cost of goods to bot users was $882, it said. Top items purchased using the bots included Apple MacBook Air laptops, plus apparel and beauty products, it said. Pricing errors were the result of a decimal point misplacement, in some cases enabling discounts of 99%, the company said. Bad actors use the bots to buy as much stock of the erroneously priced goods as possible, then resell the goods for a hefty profit, Kasada said. “In addition to impacting a retailer’s inventory, revenue and brand, Freebie Bots also increase infrastructure expenses,” said Kasada CEO Sam Crowther, saying bots enable “tens of thousands of users to automatically issue requests across an entire product catalog in parallel -- and do so every couple of seconds or less.” Retailers have to maintain a strong site architecture to handle the demand without crashing or becoming unavailable to regular shoppers, said Crowther. “It has become very easy for anyone to purchase and utilize a bot -- and increasingly difficult for retailers to identify and stop them,” he said. Kasada said its “proactive” solution “adapts as fast as attackers do, making automated attacks unviable.”

Walmart's “Case of the Mondays” ad is a shot at Amazon and part of a bigger strategy to compete with the e-commerce giant head-on, blogged eMarketer analyst Andrew Lipsman Monday. The ad promotes Walmart’s “Black Friday Deals for Days” promotion, which ran every Monday this month, leading up to Cyber Monday. The campaign addresses the “recent decline of Thanksgiving weekend as both online and offline shopping activity has plummeted on Thanksgiving and Black Friday,” which used to be Walmart’s “sweet spot for the holiday season,” Lipsman said. While Walmart traditionally owned the Thanksgiving weekend for in-store shopping, “as shoppers return to work on Mondays, they shifted their holiday shopping online, often on sites other than Walmart,” said the analyst. The “Case of the Mondays” campaign aims to keep weekend in-store customers shopping with Walmart when the weekend ends, he said. Lipsman also noted Walmart is “quietly but aggressively” building its third-party marketplace to make onboarding and launching campaigns easier for third-party sellers. “Walmart is using its competitive advantage (physical stores) to attack where Amazon is weak on product selection (D2C brands)," he said: “This helps Walmart improve selection, which attracts more shoppers, and creates the proverbial flywheel effect for which Amazon is so well-known.”

Google announced augmented reality shopping features to make it easier to buy sneakers and foundation, the most-searched category in makeup, it blogged Thursday. Consumers can shop for sneakers using AR, being able to spin, zoom and see shoes “in your space,” said Danielle Buckley, director-product, consumer shopping. Launch brands are Saucony, Vans and Merrell, with more to come soon. Any brand with 3D assets for sneakers can participate, she said, saying shoppers engage with 3D imagery 50% more than static versions. For foundation, Google compiled a photo library with 148 models in a diverse set of skin tones, ages, genders, face shapes, ethnicities and skin type, designed to help shoppers better visualize “what different products look like on you,” Buckley said. Shoppers search for a shade on Google across different prices and brands, she said, giving Clinique’s Even Better Foundation as an example. Models with similar skin tone will show up in before and after shots to help consumers choose a product. Some 60% of online beauty shoppers have decided not to buy a cosmetic item online because they didn’t know which shade to choose, she said, and 41% returned an item because it was the wrong one.

Amazon warned consumers to be alert to impersonation scams this holiday season. Fake order confirmations were over half of reported impersonation scams this year, it said Wednesday. The unsolicited communications often refer to a purchase that wasn’t really made, asking the person to “act urgently to confirm the purchase.” When she tries to cancel the fake order by clicking a link or calling the “customer service” number provided, scammers then try to steal personal or financial information, it said. Among Amazon’s tips for avoiding scams: 1) verify purchases on Amazon; 2) don’t respond to requests for payment over the phone or by e-mail; 3) be wary of false urgency; 4) don’t be pressured into buying a gift card; 5) contact Amazon if unsure about a potential scam; and 6) track scams at the Better Business Bureau’s Scam Tracker. Amazon implemented email verification technology in 20 countries to help customers identify phishing emails, it said: Customers using Gmail, Yahoo and other common email providers will see the Amazon smile logo icon in their inbox. It also has a guide to help tell whether an email, phone call, text or webpage is really from Amazon. The company has initiated takedowns of more than 20,000 phishing websites and 10,000 phone numbers used in impersonation schemes, it said, and it has referred over 100 “bad actors” to law enforcement authorities globally.

Global spending for conversational commerce over social media messaging apps, including WhatsApp or WeChat, will nearly double to $25.1 billion next year, from $13.3 billion this year, reported Juniper Research Monday. Over-the-top-based conversational commerce, which allows users to make purchases or transfer money directly in messaging apps, will grow “as retailers refine their online customer experience.” Retail will account for over 35% of spend via OTT conversational commerce channels next year, but regional fragmentation is a growth hurdle, it said. Juniper urged conversational commerce vendors to onboard each messaging app individually, while adhering to the varying financial regulations in each country. Variations in payment methods are another obstacle: “Vendors need to account for these differences and support various digital wallets,” it said. The report suggested value-added services within digital loyalty programs as a way for retailers to increase market share by using personalized messages that incentivize purchases.

Consumers spent $72.2 billion online last month, 10.9% above September, and on par with October 2021, as bargains drove early holiday season shopping, Adobe reported Thursday. Discounts in electronics reached 17%, with 10% deals on computers, 4% on TVs, the report said. Top-selling electronics and gaming devices include PlayStation 5, Xbox Series 5, Nintendo Switch, and Apple’s iPhone, Watch and AirPods; e-readers have also been high sellers, it said. Adobe expects the best deals to kick in around Cyber Week, Nov. 24-28. Revenue from buy now, pay later installment payment options ticked up 1% in October, with its revenue share up just 5% year on year on the economic environment and slowdown in consumer spending. “BNPL is also contending with challenges in demonstrating value to mass consumers,” said analyst Taylor Schreiner. Curbside pickup was 17% of orders for retailers that offer the fulfillment service, down from 24% share a year ago when COVID-19 concerns led consumers to look for safe ways to shop, it said. Adobe expects curbside pickup usage to pick up in December by consumers looking to avoid shipping delays. “Despite inflationary pressures and the rising cost of borrowing, there was not a material decline this year in early holiday shopping,” said Schreiner.

Amazon pushed its robotics fulfillment capabilities in a Thursday blog post, announcing Sparrow, a robotic system that can detect, select and handle individual products in inventory. Sparrow uses computer vision and AI to recognize and handle “millions of items.” Last year, Amazon employees picked, stowed or packed about 5 billion packages; robotics helps the e-commerce company “work smarter, not harder, to operate efficiently and safely,” it said. Sparrow will take on repetitive tasks, enabling employees to focus on other tasks, Amazon said. The company referenced the Amazon Mechatronic and Robotic Apprenticeship, a 12-week classroom program with 2,000 hours of on-the-job training to help employees learn new skills and pursue technical maintenance roles.

Amazon identified and disrupted three counterfeit operations in China, it said Wednesday, crediting efforts by local public security bureaus and intelligence provided by the company’s counterfeit crimes unit. Law enforcement seized more than 240,000 counterfeit items in the Guangdong and Jiangxi provinces that were imitations of luxury, sports and automotive brands, Amazon said. The seizures of counterfeit goods based on intelligence from Amazon follow similar actions by law enforcement in England and the U.S. that took place in California and New Jersey, it said. Any infringing listings connected to these cases were eliminated, it said.