The world of collectibles is a serious business with a passionate following. And for collectible cards, the Topps brand is in a league of its own.
Famed for its legendary baseball cards, the company launched Topps Digital as its first foray into the digital collectibles space, launching apps and an NFT platform to usher in a new era of collecting.
As Topps Digital aims to capture the surge in demand for digital collectibles, it's partnered with Checkout.com to make the purchasing experience seamless and secure for its customers globally.
"The payments experience is fundamental for brand loyalty and continued growth," says Samantha Wood, Collector Experience Manager at Topps Digital. "That's why we partnered with Checkout.com. Its global payments platform empowers us to provide a seamless and secure checkout experience to our legions of digital collectors."
The partnership between the two companies dates back to the Summer of 2021, as Topps Digital used Checkout.com as its payments partner in markets outside the US.
Topps Digital selected Checkout.com as its international payments provider because of its global acquiring footprint. However, it wasn't long before Wood began pitching Checkout.com to be its payments provider in the US, which accounts for 80% of its sales.
"The purchasing experience Checkout.com provided for our international customers was far superior to that of our US customers," says Wood. "However, resource constraints meant we could not move our US payments to Checkout.com."
That changed after Topps Digital uncovered it was running into high levels of chargeback fraud in the US. "This was a big shock," says Wood. "And to make matters worse, there wasn't a clear procedure for disputing these chargebacks, resulting in losses."
Following this incident, Topps Digital immediately started plans to bring Checkout.com on as its payments provider in the US.
Once live in the US, Checkout.com enabled its Fraud Detection Pro solution for Topps Digital. The enterprise-grade fraud solution empowers businesses to deploy sophisticated fraud management strategies and improve overall risk performance.
"We instantly saw a positive impact using Fraud Detection Pro," Wood explains. "The solution is incredibly flexible, allowing us to build unique rule sets. And it complements these rules with machine learning capabilities that detect even novel fraudulent attempts."
Today, Topps Digital's average chargeback is below 1%, down from 22% at its peak before switching to Checkout.com.
"That's a material improvement and one that's notable on our bottom line," Wood adds. "It's Checkout.com's Fraud Detection Pro solution and the team's expertise that has allowed us to deliver these results."
With its chargeback issues under control, Wood and her team can now focus on utilizing the Checkout.com platform to deliver that world-class customer experience to its US customers.
"Before working with Checkout.com, around 40% of collectors had run into issues making a purchase," Wood says. "Today, only 5% of collectors have issues. And 90% of the time, it's because of an issue with their card."
Wood explains the positive impact of this improvement in payments performance for Topps Digital. "It delights our customers and ensures they can access their desired collectibles. This is especially important when there is a new drop with limited supply."
"It's also reduced the burden on customer support," Wood adds. "We're no longer inundated with calls from disgruntled customers unable to complete a transaction. And when a rare issue arises, Checkout.com provides us with the precise response code detailing why the payment failed. Armed with this information, we can support our customers to complete the purchase, turning a potentially bad experience into a positive one."
With less pressure answering customer queries, Wood's team can be more strategic in how it operates and unlock more value for the business. "The Checkout.com dashboard is incredibly intuitive and provides us with a wealth of customer information at our fingertips," says Wood. "We've used this information to inform business decisions, such as planning for new product launches and ensuring we have enough supply to maximize demand."
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