How to provide your customers a safe online shopping experience?

How to provide your customers a safe online shopping experience?
A large chunk of valuable consumers from across the globe still choose not to make any online transactions due to the privacy and security concerns associated with the online sharing of personal and financial information. Even a significant percentage of online shoppers worry the same and shop only from the established e commerce services like Amazon.
To stay in the game, the new E-tailing businesses need to establish trust amongst the customers, which will also reduce the number of abandoned shopping carts. Making your customers feel completely safe while shopping on your site is possible only when you have all the right security measures in place. So, what you can do to make your customers feel safe on your site?
Start with a safe platform
If you are launching a new business, picking the right platform can be helpful to ensure the best security. Platforms that are built explicitly for eCommerce, combine all essential safety features. Though that’s not everything you can do to make your e-store secure, the right platform can make the task simpler.
Choosing the right platform keeping all your business needs and security aspects in mind might be a little confusing unless you are familiar with the popular ecommerce web design platforms. Consult a professional IT support team, who will understand your unique requirements and help you choose the best option accordingly.
Adopt security certifications
The risk of identity and financial information theft in online transactions is what makes potential buyers concerned. SSL or Secure Sockets Layer ensures encryption of all the information as soon as it is entered into the respective fields. Getting an SSL is essential for every eCommerce platform trying to encourage credibility amongst the shoppers.
The URL of a website with SSL begins with “https”, where the “s” stands for “secure”. This might look like a small feature, but it plays a vital role in ensuring better protection for online shoppers and helps establish a sense of trust.
You can even opt for a security certification from a security authority and mention it prominently on your online store to encourage more confidence. Getting a security certification might look like an extra expense, but it will help you build trust in the customers, which is vital. Thankfully, some of the best cloud hosting services now offer a free SSL certificate for websites.
Keep your web store updated
The internet is an ever-growing platform where the technologies keep on evolving quickly. Something new might not take even weeks to become outdated. Regularly update the platform and the plug-ins installed for managing the various features of the e-store. Reinstall new safety patches recommended by your hosting provider and replace old plug-ins quickly to ensure your webbplats have no vulnerability that can be exploited by someone to steal valuable customer information.
An outdated site is always vulnerable to malicious intents. Even if a single page on your platform is not secured, it can cost the shoppers dearly, even without you knowing it. You may talk to ecommerce website development companies to know about the latest security and plug-in updates. They must be able to help you with information and assistance to keep your shop updated and secured for your buyers.
Avoid redirects
Whenever you are redirecting your customers to a third-party website, their information is being shared, and unless the third-party is careful about the safety of your purchasers, it might open an easy gateway for information theft. Buyers are less likely to check the safety measures of a website they reach through a redirect link on your pages. This puts the shopper information at serious risk.
To ensure better safety, avoiding redirects to a third-party platform as far as possible is undoubtedly the best option. If you must use redirects, make sure that the other site is safe enough.
If there is a security issue on a site to which you are redirecting your shoppers, you might not be legally liable for it. Still, it comes as a responsibility to ensure that you are not sending your patrons to a platform that is not safe for them.
Use a secure payment gateway
Using a payment gateway is a good way to ensure better safety for your buyers’ financial information. The prominent payment gateways route the transactions through a certified partner that provides proper encryption and verification of the sensitive card information. This process eliminates the need to store the customer’s financial information once the transaction is complete and minimizes any risk of information theft.
Instead of using a payment gateway, you can also develop your own system for processing financial transactions. But it will require significant investment and strict compliance with various financial data security norms that might be overwhelming for any new business. Talk to your web development service provider to know about integrating payment gateways on your e-tailing platform.
Offer multiple payment options
If you can make the shoppers feel secured on your site, you can easily convert them into happy customers. Having multiple payment options available will help to inspire confidence. Consumers worried about security breaches are more likely not to prefer using their credit or debit cards online.
Not to lose these customers’ business, integration with services like PayPal or Visa can be useful. This will allow the buyers to complete the payment process without providing their financial information on the site.
Keep your policies transparent
Having a transparent policy about storing and using any information shared by the customer on your webstore, can go a long way. It helps to build trust and gives the buyer confidence when they get to know clearly about what you will do with their information or the precautions you have taken to ensure the safety for their data.
Customer communication
While customer communication is not a part of a safer online shopping experience, it is vital to inspire confidence among potential buyers to start spending on your site. A business that maintains direct and clear communication with the clients inspires trust. Answering buyer queries immediately, taking care of the concerns and complaints at the earliest, can be most helpful to inspire confidence.
To turn the customers not confident about making online transactions to your buyers can be difficult and might need some extra effort. Still, in the long run, it is sure to give your business an edge over competitors. To know more about how you can ensure a safe experience for your shoppers, talk to your ecommerce website designing company.