Make Sure Your Online Store Is Safe And Secure This Holiday Season

With all the doom and gloom around us this year, online merchants may have a bit more of a hurdle selling their wares to the internet public. Last year's online shopping season was whoppingly successful. But knowing how to promote your online store may not be enough anymore. What will this year bring?

No one really knows, but you need to do everything you can to ensure your customers come to your website and stay to buy. You can do that by making sure your site is safe and secure for everyone who visits. TRUSTe an online privacy company that helps consumers and businesses identify trustworthy online organizations through its Web Privacy Seal, Email Privacy Seal and Trusted Download Programs offers up the following suggestions to help you be successful this holiday season.

Hold onto your current customers tightly.  That means better insights and better targeted messages, promotions and appeals – but it is important to gather information about your customers in the right way. Use the resources of an organization which helps you collect data about your customers while staying compliant to privacy obligations, to gather more accurate data about your customers and serve them better. 
 
Enhance privacy. Don’t let trust or privacy stand in the way of your brand reputation. Participating in a certification program  and displaying a trustmark on an online retail site shows consumers that their information is safe and protected. In a tough economy some players may be tempted to cut corners and take less-than-ethical approaches to increasing sales, make sure you’re the one who is trusted. 
 
Make the privacy statement both easy to read and easy to find. When the privacy statement is in straight-forward language, the consumer is more likely to feel confident, stay on the site and make a purchase. 
 
If data spills, contact the sealholder immediately. Take the appropriate steps if there is a security breach; sealholders, like TRUSTe, are able to track those complaints so you can respond to your customers quickly. 
 
Take advantage of your company’s reputation. Is your reputation rock-solid? Then now is the time, with modest investment, to capitalize on that differentiator. If it isn’t, then your competition will have an easier time luring your customers away and converting new prospective customers.  Most likely, you are competing for dwindling deals, capital and customers with bigger, more credible, and more established competitors.

What do you think? Is your online store trustworthy? Do you have other suggestions to add? Please share by leaving a comment.