Case Study: Chicago Music Exchange achieves 13.7x ROI and secures millions in transactions with Sift

How Chicago Music Exchange achieved 13.7x ROI with Sift

Chicago Music Exchange, a long-standing specialty retailer of vintage and new music equipment, faced a surge of fraudulent orders after switching website platforms. Fraudsters used card-testing and stolen credentials, often routing shipments through freight forwarders and overseas addresses, forcing time-consuming manual investigations and revenue loss.

By deploying Sift Payment Protection with a Shopify integration and customized alerts, CME used signals like email age, IP, and billing/shipping inconsistencies to automatically flag and block risky orders. In six months the retailer achieved a 13.7x ROI, secured millions in transactions, reduced manual review to 30–60 minutes per day, and routinely stopped high-value fraudulent orders (average blocked value ~$1,300).

Chicago Music Exchange

Deb Jawicki

Director of Finance and Human Resources