Challenge

SourceNext derives its name from the idea of creating the source for the next generation. The business has developed a wide range of products and services, and with more than 20 million registered users, SourceNext enjoys a trustworthy and reliable reputation.

However, despite implementing a content management system (CMS) and migrating to the cloud, SourceNext’s 25-year-old ecommerce site was struggling with rising maintenance and operational costs due to an aging infrastructure. In 2023, SourceNext undertook a major system overhaul. While the business initially considered building the new site using predesigned ecommerce solutions, it soon realized there were limitations these systems couldn’t address.

“Our products are extremely diverse, so our sales methods and promotions vary significantly from product to product,” said Fuyuki Takasawa, former chief information officer and current technology advisor for SourceNext. “We’ve developed our own expertise and initiatives over the years, and found that a packaged solution just can’t accommodate everything. One of our biggest challenges was payment processing.”

Fraud prevention was another issue to consider. SourceNext had previously used several different fraud detection services, which made operations complex and time-consuming. Even a single request required checking multiple systems, exhausting many staff hours.

“When it comes to payments, both user experience and security are critical,” said Takasawa. “We also have to consider operational efficiency and productivity in system development and maintenance, so we decided to move to a new solution.”

Solution

To improve the payment experience and security of its website, SourceNext decided to use Stripe’s Payment Element. Using this feature, SourceNext embedded a payment form directly to its website, creating a smoother checkout experience and preventing a drop in conversion rates—something that often occurs when users are redirected to external sites.

By integrating with Stripe’s robust API, tasks that were once manual—such as importing sales data—have now been automated, reducing operational inefficiency. As for fraud prevention, the business consolidated its efforts with Stripe Radar and implemented 3D Secure 2.0 where needed, enabling highly accurate and adaptive security measures.

“In the past, responding to a single user request meant verifying the transaction with the payment provider and then verifying the fraud assessment separately,” said Takasawa. “With Stripe, all you need is the order number to see everything—from the payment results to the fraud score and the reason behind it—all on one screen. Being able to access all this information in one place is a huge advantage and has significantly improved operational efficiency.”

Results

In addition to using Radar’s built-in fraud protection, SourceNext implemented custom rules tailored to its needs. As a result, the business achieved an exceptionally low chargeback rate of just 0.02% within the first six months of implementation.

“Even when there’s an increase in fraudulent activity, the Dashboard allows us to quickly understand what’s going on,” said Takasawa. “Because we can simulate potential rules before applying them, we’re able to perform the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle very efficiently, from analysis to hypothesis generation to improvement.”

Thanks to Stripe’s data analysis elements, the team can now investigate key metrics—for example, the cause of abandoned shopping carts. At one point, the team noticed that sales for a particular product were down from the previous year. Upon investigation, they discovered that legacy logic from the old system was preemptively blocking the payment process.

“We figured that if Stripe was handling the fraud prevention, we no longer needed that logic,” said Takasawa. “After we removed it, we saw a 15% year-over-year increase in revenue.”

Looking ahead, SourceNext plans to explore additional payment options beyond credit cards, and is also considering using Stripe Billing to support subscription-based and pay-as-you-go business models.