What makes a piece of clothing iconic, let alone a whole line? The key to fashion success is often in developing something that transcends the traditionally short fashion cycle. Consider the legendary wrap dress of Diane von Furstenberg. The eponymous line was born in 1972 and continues to adorn women around the world walking their own runways in life.

So, how do you keep a fashion brand timeless in the digital age? By keeping customers top of mind when building an online purchase experience.

DVF distributes its luxury clothing line to women across the globe in more than 70 countries, including via 111 DVF-owned and partner stores. Yet, its fraud solution included a manual review process that involved calling customers to verify orders, which added unwanted friction and slower fulfillment. In addition, entire countries were blacklisted for higher-than-normal risk of fraud, preventing the brand from expanding into new markets.

“We were reliant on solutions that weren’t keeping up with our needs, and it was hurting the experience that we were able to provide our customers,” said Felipe G. Araujo, senior director of ecommerce at DVF.
With global growth in mind, DVF wanted to ease friction in the ecommerce ordering process and increase approval ratings among online consumers. So, it turned to its ecommerce partner, Merkle, to come up with a solution.

Merkle dove into DVF’s manual review process for fraud prevention to get a first-hand look at the cumbersome customer experience it provided. That’s when the agency found a solution that would meet the brand’s business and customer needs.

In order to alleviate the friction between brand and consumers, Merkle looked for a technology solution that could also help DVF expand internationally without the threat of fraudulent sales. The fraud-prevention software that stood out was Riskified, an ecommerce revenue protection and fraud prevention platform.

DVF agreed to partner with Riskified to create a fraud solution that didn’t require a manual review for purchases. Riskified allowed DVF to avoid international blacklists that blocked revenue from entire markets. It also helped reduce the number of steps in the order-verification process for the benefit of both the company and the customer. Relying on an automated solution gave DVF valuable time and resources to be devoted toward greater growth and improving customer satisfaction.

“Partnering with Merkle to implement our service into DVF’s Salesforce store was a great experience,” said Matt Lifshotz, head of partnerships at Riskified. “The Merkle team understands both business and technical requirements, so the experience was smooth for everyone involved.”