Somehow, it is often easily forgotten that an online business must create a sense of trust and portray a level of professionalism in order to make customers feel safe and secure in sharing their personal information. People are scared of things like identity theft and credit card fraud and as an e-commerce business owner, it is your responsibility to make sure your site is up to par when it comes to safety and security.
When a shopper provides a merchant website with their credit card they are going to first look for the closed padlock symbol in their web browser indicating that your site is using a valid SSL Certificate. If your site processes credit card numbers or other confidential information like social security numbers or even addresses then you should be using an SSL Certificate, which encrypts personal information into an indecipherable set of gibberish.
In fact, SSL Certificates are one of the criteria in order to be PCI Compliant. You will need to make sure your site is utilizing PCI Compliant Hosting as well. When shopping for a web host, this should be one of your first questions. If they are confused or don’t understand PCI Compliance then you should move on to the next host because this can put your livelihood at jeopardy.
In order to prove that you are a reputable business you should always put a physical address of your business to prove that you actually exist. Even if you are running your e-commerce business out of your spare bedroom, you want to make your site look as professional as possible. It is also always good to have a phone number where customers can reach you in case they have a question or a problem. Shoppers want to feel confident that if there is a shipping problem or other issue, you will be able to be reached and are honest.
In the e-commerce industry, the PA-DSS has been a major topic lately. As of July 1st, all e-commerce payment applications must be compliant with the new Data Security Standard. Payment applications include software like shopping carts. It is imperative that as a storeowner, you make certain that your shopping cart is compliant.
