Case Study: eGalaxy Fraud Protection | West Edmonton Mall

THE CUSTOMER
West Edmonton Mall is a 5.3-million-square-foot world-class entertainment complex full of more than 800 stores, over 100 dining venues and a hotel. Additionally, there are nine exciting attractions including an indoor amusement park, waterpark and underground aquarium. Together, these attractions welcome approximately 1.7 million visitors annually. For the past 23 years, the Mall has used Gateway Ticketing Systems’ Galaxy ticketing and admission control solutions to efficiently run their attractions operations.

THE CHALLENGE
The Mall had started selling tickets on their eGalaxy™ Web Store, and for the ensuing 14 months, online sales resulted in 10% of total sales for the Mall. However, management started noticing classified ads promoting attractions passes at a reduced cost and experiencing increased chargebacks from their credit card processor. Online fraud was suspected.

Initially the cost of an online fraud protection service was cost-prohibitive. So the Mall tried to combat this problem by requiring guests to show their credit card with their tickets when they arrived. Though this new process diminished fraud, it also significantly reduced the Mall’s online sales as it was inconvenient to the guests who legitimately purchased tickets.

THEIR SOLUTION
The Mall’s senior accountant David Lee knew there had to be another option. He approached Gateway who had developed a new pricing model to make these types of services more accessible for its customers. Ultimately, the Mall decided it was in their best financial interest to go live with the eGalaxy™ Fraud Protection Service.

Gateway’s Managed Services team worked with Lee to determine fraud thresholds for more than 100 data points. Now suspicious sales are stopped before the credit card transactions occur, protecting unsuspecting cardholders.

THEIR BUSINESS BENEFITS
“In just three weeks, we’re experiencing online sales back up to 10% of our total sales and with zero fraud,” Lee says. An additional benefit is improved operational efficiency. “Before this fraud service, we spent anywhere from 15-30 minutes responding to each chargeback. That was easily a 45-hour work week,” he explains. “Now we can monitor activity in real time and watch out for changing trends to stay ahead of determined fraudsters.”

WHY eGALAXY FRAUD PROTECTION SERVICE?
“We initially projected a loss of $80,000 this year because of fraudulent online transactions. But with this service in place, our online sales volume is back up to 10% of our total sales and with zero fraud.”
– David Lee, Senior Accountant | West Edmonton Mall, Canada