Consumer advocacy groups and cyber security companies alike have warned consumers about the importance of online safety, which means they are more educated than ever before about the risks of shopping online. This information is shifting consumer behaviour, causing people to think twice before entering personal details to make an account or handing over their credit card number.
With a heightened risk of retail fraud (59% of retailers say that the level of fraudulent transactions has increased in the last year), establishing trust with your customers through secure shopping is extremely important.
Customers are very likely to abandon a webpage that takes too long to load. Even worse yet is a site that crashes or lags in the middle of the 'checkout' or payment process, leading them to doubt the success or authenticity of the transaction!
When your e-commerce site and IT network are hosted in the cloud, your platform can scale to meet demands, meaning fewer site crashes and high-availability during seasonal traffic spikes.
If you haven't recently evaluated your backup or disaster recovery plan, then don't hesitate! Your entire IT network can be replicated to a secure, secondary site, which can be easily invoked at the first sign of unexpected downtime or network 'traffic jams'.
Nearly half of consumers reported that better security or fraud protection would encourage them to use card payments more. However, just 53% of retailers say they are adequately prepared to fight fraud.
Many customers prefer when they can complete their purchase giving as little data as possible, so re-consider how complex or personal your process may seem to the consumer.
Make it clear on your website that your platform and hosting are PCI DSS compliant, and don't neglect the basic step of making sure the green padlock is in the address bar (representing a secure certificate that traffic to and from your website is encrypted).
With so many widely-publicised data breaches involving credit card and bank details, consumers are warming to the idea of two-factor or multi-factor authentication for any account where they share payment details.
Although these security features are rare on e-commerce sites, consider leading the way and implementing 2FA or MFA. This can help dramatically to reduce the number of fraudulent transactions, and demonstrates to your customers that you take their cyber security seriously.
In a survey of UK consumers about trust, 79% said that if trust broke down for some reason, they’d switch from a brand, with 49% doing it immediately. Even if consumers can be notoriously fickle, your brand's reputation is still your greatest asset.
When all the components of your IT and cyber security strategy are working together, your customers will be able to trust your business and make purchases with confidence. Allow your focus on security and consistency to speak for you!
With the strategic help of a managed IT services partner, you can easily prepare your retail business for future growth. We provide the technological expertise and strategic insight to evaluate your IT network and suggest some good options: with clear costs outlined.
