Ethoca Consumer Clarity: Everything Merchants Need to Know

Defining Ethoca Consumer Clarity

Consumer Clarity is a dispute resolution platform, developed by Ethoca, that performs real-time data exchange between participating merchants and cardholders. The aim of this direct communication is to resolve transaction inquiries before they progress into chargebacks. This solution fosters collaboration between enrolled merchants and cardholders, questioning a charge on their statement. Generally, consumer clarity is similar to Visa's Order Insight — Consumer Clarity's goal is to resolve cardholder issues without initiating a formal chargeback process. However, Consumer Clarity functions are reserved for Mastercard transactions only. For Visa operations coverage, merchants must explore Order Insight.

Consumer Clarity: How It Works

Consumer Clarity helps answer real customer questions and proves a charge's validity. It collects transaction details and provides this information to the involved parties instantly. The dispute is stopped before filing if the customer's issue is resolved. Integrating Consumer Clarity with your CRM or order management system works best, allowing cardholders and banks quick access to transaction details. Even if a customer contacts their bank, the issuer can use Consumer Clarity to provide these details.

For better understanding, we will explain how Consumer Clarity works step by step:

• Stage 1. The cardholder notices an unfamiliar purchase.
• Stage 2. The customer looks up details of the transaction. The merchant delivers the requested information using Consumer Clarity through a financial institution.
• Stage 3. If the cardholder recognizes the charge, they don’t proceed with filing a chargeback. However, if a customer still deems the transaction illegitimate, the situation escalates to a dispute.

Notably, Consumer Clarity gives sellers control over what data they share with Mastercard. All shared information is completely secure and will not be replicated. Still, sharing as much information as possible is recommended for optimal effectiveness.

What Information Consumer Clarity Shares

So, what specific data is shared via Consumer Clarity to help avoid chargebacks? Any information the card issuer can provide to a cardholder to help them remember a legitimate transaction can potentially prevent a chargeback. For instance, the details sellers might share through Ethoca Consumer Clarity could include:

• Merchant data.  Unfair claims can lead to serious reputational and financial damage. To clear the misunderstanding and stop the chargeback in its tracks, Consumer Clarity provides dispute parties with the seller’s information, such as URL, business name, company’s address, and the merchant’s phone number. Such information can help sellers prove their competence.
• Customer’s data. This tool also shares customers’ data, such as name and phone number, with the bank and merchants to help them identify a specific cardholder. This feature helps resolve the issue and protects the revenue and reputation of the merchant while keeping the customer satisfied. Providing these key identifiers streamlines the investigation process for the bank and merchant, leading to quicker and more accurate resolutions. 
• Purchase data. Consumer Clarity also shares the product description, images, order number, customer IP address, devices used for purchase, and other information about the order that can help prove a fraudulent chargeback as an illegitimate claim. This allows sellers to defend their interests and protect the good name of their company, while simultaneously detecting scammers. It can also potentially help customers who don’t recognize the merchant’s establishment’s name, as specific purchase information can help such clients recall their order.  

By collecting vital information on purchase, merchant, and client, Consumer Clarity allows sellers to prove their innocence and avoid financial troubles. Moreover, this helps merchants maintain a strong brand image, which is vital for strategic business connections. 

Benefits of Consumer Clarity for Sellers

Ethoca is a solution used by merchants worldwide, and the Consumer Clarity feature is one of the reasons behind its popularity. Below, we explore the benefits Ethoca Consumer Clarity offers merchants that make this instrument so in demand.

• Secured revenue. By sharing transaction details with financial establishments, Consumer Clarity helps merchants prove their competence and safeguard sales revenue that could have been lost to a chargeback. Clear purchase statements, which this tool provides for cardholders, can also help them recognize charges on their statement and prevent them from filing a dispute.
• Chargeback threshold maintenance. Consumer Clarity helps merchants stay within chargeback thresholds, defined by payment processors, by preventing chargebacks. This allows sellers to avoid enrollment in merchant monitoring programs, which apply significant penalty fees to poor-performing businesses. By escaping monitoring programs, sellers avoid substantial monetary losses, which helps companies to maintain stable, uninterrupted development.
• Minimal risks of fraud. The transaction information available through Consumer Clarity can help issuing banks recognize and stop unfounded chargebacks by recalling evidence that goes against the buyer's statement.
• Repeat offense prevention. As Consumer Clarity can successfully identify and block scam attempts, merchants using this tool are less likely to suffer from repeat offences from the same fraudsters. Caught once, scammers are more likely to avoid picking the business as their target, which minimizes the risk of a repeat fraud attempt.
• Quick dispute resolution. The chargeback process, which includes initial dispute, representment, and arbitration, can take weeks or months to reach a conclusion. Consumer Clarity, however, offers a significantly more efficient solution, allowing sellers to resolve cases in minutes before a chargeback is officially filed.
• Better company image. Consumer Clarity helps sellers resolve fraudulent disputes effectively, which is essential for maintaining a strong brand reputation. This feature allows merchants to demonstrate competence and avoid unjustified reputational damage, which is critical for building strategic business relationships.
• Enhanced customer trust. Demonstrating competence through Consumer Clarity not only helps merchants win disputes but also builds greater trust with customers.  This improved reliability retains existing customers and attracts new ones, contributing to sales growth.

By investing in Ethoca, merchants invest in the safety and longevity of their business. You can access this solution and explore other helpful Ethoca functions, such as Ethoca Alerts and Fraud Insights, effortlessly with MidArmor.