January always seems like a month of new ideas, fresh approaches and reflection on past experiences. With that in mind, this month takes a look at why an important element of your business needs extra attention when it comes to payment protection.

In the digital world we all operate in, the threat of cybercrime, online fraud or even human error is very real and something that shouldn’t be ignored or parked. When it comes to transactions, offering a safe, secure and reliable service is key to not only building trust with your customers, but also delivering peace of mind that every payment that is made is safe and secure. If you haven’t gauged already, those are the two buzzwords for this blog.

Before we dive into the obvious solution, lets look at some crunching examples where fraud over payments can take place in our industry. And believe me, they do!

First up, national bed retailer Dreams was a victim of a significant fraudster when one of its employees decided to steal over £50,000 from the company. An investigation by Thames Valley Police, which took over five years, found that this staff member created and carried out fraudulent refunds to customers, but actually refunded the money to cards owned and controlled in their name. What’s more, the offence took place between January 2017 and January 2018 – a whole year of theft from under Dreams’ nose. Following a court case, the employee was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, after he pleaded guilty to one count of fraud by abuse of position.

Another example, which dated between 19 July and 3 August 2022, involved an employee in a managerial position at carpet retailer Tapi Carpets. This staff member stole over £30,000 from the retailer by refunding money from the company’s card machine to multiple bank cards in their own name and that the intention was to continue to steal funds until being caught. This employee was sentenced to 12-months in prison, suspended for two years, after pleading guilty.

It’s safe to say that both these staff members saw their respective roles terminated, while also having to repay the company – although this took time for both businesses to recoup the stolen money and sometimes the full amount wouldn’t be achievable. In the Dreams case, the employee was ordered to repay the balance at £1,075 a month, while the Tapi fraudster had to repay £500 each month towards £6,000 compensation to the retailer.

These are just two high-profile examples of fraud that goes on within the furnishing retail environment. For multiple retailers, perhaps the time and cost of absorbing such fraudulent activity can be mitigated but for when this occurs at an independent retailer, it can prove to be more costly. One way to prevent such activity taking place – other than employing trustworthy people of course – is through a secure payment platform.

This brings us onto the focal point of the piece, FurniturePay.

FurniturePay offers a secure and safe card transaction service – those buzzwords again – as well as the potential to save a business thousands of pounds on transaction fees. FurniturePay can fully integrate a POS device(s) into the RetailSystem EPoS, meaning that the transaction gets sent directly to the POS without human intervention, which eliminates human error.

Furthermore, it also makes it impossible to perform a Chargeback, without authorisation, eliminating the possibility of potential fraud, while offering complete peace of mind that every transaction is secure and remains that way. The total amount you place into a RetailSystem EPoS is the amount which will appear in the blink of an eye on your payment device.

From security to savings, the added benefit with FurniturePay is the potential to save thousands of pounds on transaction fees too. FurniturePay has second to none negotiating power with several top providers, including Barclays, due to over £2 billion of buying power through its clients, which means that they can negotiate very favourable rates for customers.

So, when it comes to being safe and secure through payments, FurniturePay provides the perfect solution. If you haven’t thought about this element of your business, perhaps its time to tighten up your digital defenses to avoid becoming a victim of fraud.