If you’ve ever bought anything online you’ll know that you simply have to trust the site you’re using to keep your personal and credit card details secure. The internet is a notoriously unsafe domain, so internet security is understandably a big issue with private consumers. The general public has become much more wary of using sites they perceive as risky due to the number of high profile reports of sensitive data being accessed or misused from well-known sites.
The potential loss of sales revenue due to lack of trust could be huge given the size and continued growth of the online shopping market, particularly in the UK. The online retail association IMRG estimates that 865m deliveries of online purchases will made in the UK during 2014.
While much of this activity will be done on a pc, research by Millennial Media and comScore found that mobile shopping is also growing fast, with 51% of retail activity occurring on mobile devices during 2013. So, for all businesseswho use e-commerce, online security must be seen to be trustworthy to capture a piece of the increasingly valuable online market.
Making e-commerce sites secure – SSL Certificates
The most widely used and trusted security protocol is known as SSL, which is short for Secure Socket Layer. This piece of technology encrypts the connection between the consumer’s web browser and the e-commerce site’s web server. The encryption process ensures that data transferred between the two remains private and protected from the ever increasing risk of threats such as Malware viruses and direct hacker attacks. Once installed consumers will be able to see that the site has SSL in place as a padlock icon will be visible in the address bar and the web address may also be highlighted in green.
In order to apply, the SSL protocol it needs to be enabled on the website’s server. To do this an SSL Certificate must be bought which identifies the site. The software must then be installed on the site’s server. Retailers can buy SSL certificates from a number of sources with each provider offering different features and pricing to match individual business needs.
There’s no doubt e-commerce is here to stay and those with SSL Certificates will be in the best position to reap the most from their e-commerce activities.