Australia's peak shopping season has come around again, bringing both opportunity and risk. As retailers prepare for key moments like Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the summer holiday rush, so too are fraudsters – leveraging increasingly sophisticated tools, with the ability to easily strike at scale.
Adyen's 2025 Retail Report reveals a stark reality – Australians lost nearly $1,700 per person to fraud this year, almost double the previous year, with Baby Boomers the hardest hit, experiencing a 332% spike in losses. Retailers are absorbing significant damage as well. A quarter of Australian businesses say they lost more than $1.3 million to fraud in the past 12 months, while almost one in three (31%) report a rise in fraud attempts during peak season.
For consumers and businesses, it's trust, not discounts that will define peak-season success. Here are three strategies Aussie retailers can adopt to protect revenue, build customer confidence and maintain a frictionless checkout experience during the year's most crucial trading period.
1. Create cohesive, seamless checkouts across every channel
Peak-season performance often comes down to one central factor – whether the checkout experience feels easy.
Traffic surges can expose weaknesses in payment flows, leading to friction at the exact moment customers are ready to buy. With competition just a click away, even small failures carry a big cost. According to Adyen's 2025 Retail Report, 62% of shoppers will abandon a purchase if their preferred payment method isn't available.
This pressure is amplified by shifting preferences. With the rise of digital wallets, contactless payments remain a dominant purchasing behaviour and the need for local and alternative payment methods are growing as shoppers lean into familiar, trusted options.
Retailers who outperform during peak season are increasingly those who can offer a consistent experience across online, mobile and in-store channels. Unifying these systems improves resilience under heavy volumes, reduces failed transactions, and helps staff resolve issues quickly.
2. Lean into AI-driven insights to stay ahead of fraud
Fraud has entered a new, more sophisticated era. Scams are no longer poorly written or easily flagged. With the rise of generative AI, phishing messages can now look like legitimate marketing emails and can be sent at massive scale. As shoppers rush for deals, these messages become more convincing – and more dangerous.
Traditional rule-based fraud systems often fail under peak-season conditions. Shopping behaviour becomes unpredictable, average transaction values rise, and purchase frequency spikes – all patterns that rigid systems may flag as suspicious, leading to false declines and frustrated customers.
Today's environment requires adaptive, AI-powered fraud prevention. Essentially, technology that can analyse behavioural signals, past transactions, loyalty data and geolocation in real time. This multi-layered approach blocks high-risk transactions while allowing legitimate customers to move through checkout without friction.
In the past, fraud prevention came at the expense of customer experience. Today, retailers must fight AI with AI. In fact, our research found that nearly 29% of Australian retailers are planning to invest in AI-driven security solutions, recognising that fighting AI-powered scams increasingly requires AI-powered defence.
3. Strengthen loyalty through purpose-driven experiences
Peak season isn't only a performance moment – it's also an opportunity to build deeper emotional connections with customers.
Australians increasingly choose brands that align with their values. Our research shows 75% already donate to charity, and nearly half say they feel more loyal to brands that demonstrate social purpose.
Integrating charitable giving into checkout experiences, whether online or in store, has proven to be a meaningful way to foster that connection. During last year's Black Friday period in the US, donation activity rose significantly, showing that shopping and generosity go hand-in-hand.
A purpose-driven strategy helps retailers foster trust, enhance loyalty, stand out in a crowded market and most importantly, give customers a reason to return long after the sale season is over.
This peak season, the retailers who master secure, seamless, and customer-centred payments will turn high-volume moments into long-term customer confidence and loyalty.
