Overview

The Business Classification Report (part of the Online Credibility suite) classifies a given business into their industry (or industries) based on business name and website. Industry classification is based on North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes or Merchant Category Codes (MCC).

The report analyzes a business's online presence to determine the most relevant codes. Organizations can use the report to also flag high-risk industries based on factors such as reputational risk, fraud risk, legal risk, etc.

Note: We recommend running Business Website Verification first. If a website can't be confirmed as belonging to the claimed business, any classification data returned could reflect the wrong business entirely.

Why is this report valuable?

• Automate industry classification: Replaces the manual process of researching and categorizing a business's industry, giving your team faster, more consistent onboarding decisions.
• Enforce compliance requirements: Many businesses have legal or policy obligations around specific industries. The BCR automatically flags businesses operating in regulated or restricted categories so you can route them appropriately.
• Customize risk tolerance: High-risk industry flags (e.g., cannabis, crypto, adult entertainment) can be tailored to your organization's specific risk appetite, allowing you to decline, escalate, or approve based on your own rules.

What information does this report provide?

The Report results includes the following sections:

• Risk assessment: this section outlines if the business belongs to a flagged industry based on specified keywords. Industries flagged as high-risk include the following, but can be customized further by working with your Persona account team.

  • Adult Entertainment
  • Cannabis
  • Cryptocurrencies
  • Drugs and drug paraphernalia
  • Firearms
  • Gambling
  • Prepaid or gift cards

• NAICS codes: this section includes NAICS codes the business may belong to. Note that NAICS codes are listed in their order of confidence and up to 2 may be listed.

• MCC Codes: this section include MCC codes the business may belong to. Up to 1 MCC code may be listed.

• Extracted keywords: this section identifies key terms on the business's website to help determine the industry or risk category the business belongs to.

Configuration Options

• LLM Provider Selection: Choose your preferred LLM provider to power the Business Classification Report. There are no pricing differences based on the selected LLM provider.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What classifications are available?

The Business Classification Report provides both NAICS and MCC information about a business.

What locales and languages do this report support?

The report isn’t limited to English and generally performs well across other languages. No special locale setup is required.

Does this report require Business Website Verification (BWV)?

No, although we do recommend running BWV before the Business Classification Report. If a website can't be confirmed as belonging to the claimed business, any classification data returned could reflect the wrong business entirely.