Toys R Us increased omnichannel orders without increasing fraud risk

For Toys R Us Canada, the country’s largest toy and baby retailer, retail locations are central to consumer experience, cultivating the sense of community that has become a trademark of the brand.

“Community is a differentiator for us. It comes through in our customer journey and is a tangible part of the culture in our stores,” explains Toys R Us Canada’s AVP of Ecommerce & Consumer Technology Rohan Cherian. So when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and stores across the country – and world – were forced to close the doors on their retail locations, that sense of community was suddenly put into jeopardy. “Physical retail was one of our strongest channels, and without it, we needed to find a new way to show value and differentiate ourselves,” says Cherian.

Luckily, not quite a year before the widespread lockdowns, the toy retailing giant turned to Signifyd to provide fraud protection for online orders. With Signifyd’s guaranteed protection automating order processing and driving up approval rates, all sorts of possibilities opened up, including the roll out of omnichannel offerings such as buy-online-pickup-in-store (BOPIS) and curbside pickup. In October of 2019, when Toys R Us experienced a fraud attack specifically targeting their BOPIS offering, Signifyd immediately blocked the orders in real-time mitigating all fraud losses for the retailer.

Which is why, in March of 2020, Toys R Us had the confidence to go all in on in-store and curbside pickup.

“Previously BOPIS made up about 5-10% of our orders. So to scale up, we had to come together to figure out how to redesign, market, and merchandise for
omnichannel while avoiding the bottlenecks that too often come with it.”

Bottlenecks like parking lots full of parents waiting to pick up their curbside orders, or worse, slowdowns in order fulfillments due to increased fraud pressure and manual review.

“We wanted to make sure that we were accelerating customers through the purchasing journey and that they were not getting stuck in a fraud step or inaccurately blocked,” explains Cherian. Here, Signifyd was a huge help.

• COVID-19 accelerated the shift from in-store shopping to ecommerce and omnichannel fulfilment.
• Rapid expansion of BOPIS and curbside pickup increased operational complexity and fraud risk.
• Toys R Us needed to protect the customer experience while preventing fraud and minimising manual review.

Signifyd provided Toys R Us with the confidence to expand its omnichannel strategy by combining automated fraud decisioning, chargeback recovery and financial protection into a single solution. Using machine learning to assess orders in real time, Signifyd enabled the retailer to approve legitimate BOPIS and curbside orders quickly while maintaining strong protection against fraud, even where traditional fraud signals were limited.
To further strengthen its omnichannel operations, Toys R Us implemented Automated Chargeback Recovery, replacing a manual process with real-time identification of abusive chargebacks, helping the business respond more quickly to repeat abuse while reducing operational effort.
As consumer abuse continued to rise, Toys R Us extended its protection with Guaranteed INR Protection, providing a 100% financial guarantee against eligible item-not-received chargebacks. Together with Guaranteed Fraud Protection and Automated Chargeback Recovery, this delivered comprehensive protection across the customer journey, allowing Toys R Us to continue expanding its omnichannel offering with confidence.

• Enabled fast, automated fraud decisions for omnichannel orders.
• Automated chargeback recovery to reduce manual effort and identify repeat abuse.
• Delivered end-to-end protection with Guaranteed Fraud Protection and Guaranteed INR Protection.

“We thought a lot about how the pandemic had shifted the needs of our consumers. Moms and dads are stuck at home and the kids are driving them crazy. How do you get something into their hands quickly? That’s what led us to create ready-made offerings like Stay-At-Home Play Packs and Boredom Busters.”

In fact, the Toys R Us team took the innovation one step farther, partnering strategically with Doordash to get those items off the shelves of their stores- turned-fulfillment-centres and into the hands of their customers in as little as 20 minutes. All the while, with ecommerce growing by over 130% and in-or-at-store-pickup surging to 80% of orders, Signifyd has maintained an over 99% approval rate on omnichannel orders. And the financial guarantee covering approved orders that turn out to be fraudulent, means BOPIS is a no-lose proposition for Toys R Us.

The benefits of Signifyd, and the pandemic-inspired innovations it has enabled, have produced an epiphany for Cherian and his team. They now know they have what it takes to enact dramatic change across the entire enterprise — and they know the value that such change can bring to the customer experience. They are exploring new ways to pick up and return products, better ways to support Toys R Us’ loyalty program and more comprehensive ways to stitch together and automate their operations across the entire company.

• Supported 130%+ ecommerce growth while maintaining a 99%+ approval rate on omnichannel orders.
• Enabled rapid omnichannel innovation, including BOPIS, curbside pickup and DoorDash delivery.
• Gave Toys R Us the confidence to continue transforming the customer experience.

Consumer expectations continue to evolve, with convenience, flexibility and speed now defining the retail experience. Through its partnership with Signifyd, Toys R Us is well positioned to continue expanding its omnichannel capabilities, introducing new fulfilment experiences and delivering the seamless customer journey shoppers expect, all while maintaining confidence in every transaction.