Many entrepreneurs are looking towards the digital space in order to make money. For those determined to launch a successful digital business, setting up an eCommerce venture is very appealing.
The draw of selling goods through the internet is huge. It takes relatively little capital to set up (especially if you can secure a drop shipping arrangement, which greatly reduces the amount of financial risk involved), particularly when compared to running a physical brick-and-mortar store.
But setting up a digital eCommerce store isn’t all plain sailing. When handling customer information, you have a duty to make sure their data is safe and secure, and neglecting this duty could land you in hot water.
Not All Digital Security Relies on Tech and Code
Some of the best security measures that can be put in place simply stem from great communication with your customers.
For example, Couponbox have highlighted Amazon’s approach to dealing with customers’ sensitive information as particularly effective. In essence, emails asking for finance or personal information directly should be disregarded, as it’s likely they’re phishing scams.
Instead, all payments, delivery, and personal details can be handled directly within the Amazon ecosystem, natively inside the user’s account via the website or app.
By simply educating the customer on how to use and protect their data, Amazon is proactively taking measures to protect themselves and their shoppers.
Some Security Measures Are More Technical, Such as Encryption
Many major players within the digital sphere are pushing for a fully secure, encrypted internet, through initiatives such as Let’s Encrypt, which has received sponsorship from huge businesses like Cisco and Facebook.
Let’s Encrypt offers free SSL certificates to websites. These allow websites and their users to connect via an encrypted channel, which means all data, passwords, and payment details are secure.
As part of its push for an ‘HTTPS everywhere’ internet, Google is actively marking non-HTTPS domains as unsecured in Google Chrome. In fact, in order for a website to be PCI compliant, it has to have SSL certificates installed to be able to handle payments.
If you are thinking of starting an eCommerce store, you must make sure that HTTPS is baked in from the start.
It’s much easier to implement this in the beginning, rather than retrospectively putting it in place. Shopify are now offering HTTPS as standard on all its stores, which is a pretty great solution for entrepreneurs, as it’s an out-of-the-box offering that is extremely quick to set up. This reduces the amount of technical know-how required to get an eCommerce business up and running.
To bolster this, make sure your customers know that you will never ask for sensitive information through certain channels, such as emails or over the phone. Data theft and leakage is a very real concern within the eCommerce world, but it shouldn’t be something that startups fear.
With the correct planning and infrastructure in place, the risks are reduced to a minimum, allowing you to focus on what matters the most: growing the business.
