Making Online Shopping Safe and Secure For Your Customers

Online shopping used to be a novelty, but according to the data published by MarketLive, it is clear that ecommerce sales are continuously improving across all categories. This is great news for anyone with an online store, but also means that the concern of cyber-crime looms bigger. MarketLive’s report indicates that smartphones are playing a larger role in online shopping, but the downside to this convenience is that consumers are more vulnerable to cyber-crime.

It is often believed that only the major online retailers are targeted by criminals, but in reality smaller businesses are equally at risk. While large retailers often have the funds for extensive online security measures the same cannot be said about the smaller merchants. However, good security does not have to cost a fortune, and there are numerous ways in which online businesses can safeguard the valuable information of their customers.

Ensuring That Customer Data Is Kept Secure At All Times

Thanks to ecommerce builders sites such as Shopify you don’t need to be an online security expert to create a secure website. A good ecommerce website builder will take care of all the basics to ensure that the valuable information entrusted to you by customers is handled securely. Personal details and credit card information can be used for identity theft, so it is very important that customers feel secure when entering this information during a purchase. This is the only way to give customers the confidence to make a purchase, and it is also a big step towards them becoming regular customers.

Lax security measures not only places the personal information of your customers at risk, but can also seriously damage the reputation of your business. The fallout from a security intrusion where credit card information is stolen can be enough to end a small business, so it is a risk that must be taken very seriously. The advantage of opting for a reputable ecommerce website builder is that they come with integrated security features. Precautions such as the encryption of sensitive data and security measures against exploits used by hackers are all typically featured, but it is also very important that no cardholder data is stored by the provided.

Another way to relieve some of the security strain of online financial transactions is the use of third-party merchants. Third-party processors like PayPal are equipped to take care of financial transactions in a secure manner, which frees up your time to focus on the running of your ecommerce site.

Ensuring Strict Security from Both Sides

Hackers often exploit the weakest link in the security chain, which in many cases is your customers. Despite the risk of identity theft there are still customers who use easy to guess passwords for their online accounts. Hackers can then, through phishing, social engineering or brute force methods, gain access to these passwords. This issue can be avoided from your side by only allowing a complex password during the sign-up process. Don’t allow customer passwords to match their usernames, and insist on longer passwords that contain a combination of symbols, uppercase letters, lowercase letters and numbers.

Additional security measures, such as employing the Address Verification System (AVS) can also make it harder for thieves to make fraudulent purchases. The system works by checking the address of the person using the credit card to ensure it matches the one that is on file with the credit card company.

Thankfully, these features and more are typically integrated with reputable website builders making it easier than ever to maintain customer security.