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The increasing number of online purchases of services, solutions, and goods has revolutionized the ecommerce industry. It has opened numerous opportunities to entrepreneurs from all over the world. However, one of the most important things ecommerce businesses need to do is figure out how to secure online payment.
The increasing popularity of online shopping in recent years has opened doors to online theft and fraud. As a result, several commerce businesses are looking to include online payment security methods to ensure a safe and secure online transaction experience for customers.
There is no denying that the security of online transactions has become a serious issue over the last few years. Ecommerce businesses that fail to protect customers against online fraud and theft will lose their trust. In addition, most online shoppers will not buy products and services from a store or website that isn’t trustworthy or secure.
Business owners must ensure secure online transaction payments if they want to gain the trust of customers. The number of online payment fraud is increasing rapidly, so businesses need to implement necessary security measures.
A Beginner’s Guide to Payment Security
In simple words, online payment security can be defined as the process of offering rules, regulations, and essential security measures for protecting the money, data, and privacy of customers.
In today’s digital era, every company should be looking for potential threats and attacks that can negatively affect their business. Fortunately, several effective measures will help you ensure the security of online payment transactions, and some of them are as follows.
1: Secure Your Website with SSL Security
Ecommerce businesses and online merchants should do everything possible to ensure that the data exchanged through the online store is fully protected. One of the simplest ways to ensure data safety is by installing SSL certificates on your ecommerce business website.
Suppose you are running your ecommerce website without using the right kind of SSL certificate. In that case, your business is at a higher risk of falling prey to data breaches and other cyberattacks. Fortunately, you will be able to protect sensitive customer information by installing SSL Certificate on your website. You can choose any branded SSL certificates like Comodo SSL certificate, GeoTrust certificate, GlobalSign SSL, etc. to secure your website’s data.
The primary purpose of SSL certificates is to transmit sensitive data securely. This means that customers’ private data, such as credit card numbers, passwords, and usernames, will not be visible to hackers and cyber attackers when customers make online transactions or online payments.
Another interesting thing to note is that most customers prefer to shop from reputed, reliable, and secure websites and online stores. So, you will need to ensure that your business is trustworthy, which is where SSL certificates come into play. SSL-enabled websites and online stores will help you improve the trust of customers. If you are on a tight budget and need a cheap yet premium SSL certificate, you could try buying the RapidSSL, GeoTrust SSL, Thawte SSL, DigiCert, etc. They provide best SSL Certificates at a reasonable price with money-back warranty.
Websites with installed SSL certificates are very easy to spot for online shoppers because they will have the following things.
- HTTPS at the beginning of the website address
- A small icon in the web browser bar
2: PCI Compliance
PCI compliance is one of the most important security measures that online merchants will surely need to implement. This is because businesses that are not following the protocols in PCI compliance will face legal issues.
The PCI or Payment Card Industry is the organization that has set up security standards to ensure safe and secure online payment processing. All businesses processing credit card payments from customers will have to stay compliant with Payment Card Industry standards and practices.
The PCI standards will be explained in detail in a document known as PCI DSS ( Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard). PCI usually assigns four different levels of business classifications based on the number of online transactions that a business makes over a certain period.
3: Tokenization
Tokenization is an additional security measure that online merchants should consider implementing to offer more protection to customers’ payment data. Tokenization is usually offered to businesses by some of the most popular payment processors available in the market.
The tokenization process occurs when a certain program transforms customers’ payment data into a random set or string of numbers. This means that hackers will not be able to do anything with your data if it has been tokenized.
This is one of the major reasons why tokenization has become an essential security measure for online transitions. When selecting a payment processor for your business, you must check whether it uses tokenization or not before making a final buying decision.
4: Try to Get Familiar with Online Theft And Frauds
Unfortunately, several ecommerce businesses and online merchants fail to realize that they will be able to cut down the risk of online thefts and frauds easily. This can be done by getting familiar with the common types of tactics used by cybercriminals and hackers.
There are different types of online fraud, but they can be easily divided into two separate categories: listed below.
5: Account Takeover
Most of you will be aware that several ecommerce websites and stores provide accounts to customers for storing purchase history, financial data, and personal information. Unfortunately, cybercriminals might attempt a phishing scheme for hacking into the business account and then obtain sensitive customer data.
One of the most reported tactics used by hackers is that they send emails, which will trick customers into revealing their password and username. Once they get hold of these details, they will log into customers’ private accounts to make unauthorized purchases.
6: Identity Theft
Even if your business has taken all necessary steps to protect customer data, cybercriminals and hackers may still try to hack into the databases. If they are successful, they will steal passwords, usernames, credit card numbers, and other personal customer information.
7: Verify All Online Transactions
One of the most important things all ecommerce businesses should do is to verify all online transactions thoroughly. You must ensure that the payment has been made before offering a service or dispatching goods. There are several simple and effective ways for businesses to verify online transactions.
For instance, you can ask your customers for an address verification match or use their credit card details for verifying their identity. This will, in turn, help your businesses considerably reduce the chance of online fraud.
8: CVV Verification
Most online shoppers would have surely heard about the CVV code. CVV or CVV2 code is the four or three-digit code, which can be seen on your credit or debit card. Requesting customers to enter their 3- or 4-digit code while making online transactions will help you stay away from online theft and fraud.
This is because customers who are sharing their CVV code will most probably be authorized card users. Online fraudsters who are trying to make unauthorized purchases are less likely to have the CVV code.
Here are a few more ways that will help you to ensure the security of online transaction payments.
- Monitoring online transactions regularly
- Setting limits to the number of purchases that a customer can make
- Keeping software systems and platforms up to date
- Opting for a reliable e-commerce platform
- Educate customers and staff
Conclusion
Online shoppers and merchants want online buying to be simple, safe, and efficient, but it is easier said than done. As mentioned earlier, the rate of online payment fraud is estimated to rise in the coming years.
If customers trust online businesses with their private information and money while making purchases, the merchants’ responsibility is to offer a secure buying experience. If your business can deliver that, then online shoppers will prefer your company over others.
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