data security

A few years back, entrepreneurs only needed a guard, security cameras, and alarms to protect their assets. Today, things have changed. Due to improved technology, e-commerce is on the rise. Most business people are turning to this trade because it offers several advantages compared to physical stores.

This is because an online store is easier to open and requires less capital to start. Also, the running costs are lower. In addition, the internet exposes a business to customers all over the world. This helps increase an enterprise’s customer base and potential earnings.

How To Protect Client Information In Your E-Commerce Site

Despite the numerous advantages of e-commerce, it comes with several challenges. Businesses have to deal with site downtime, traffic interruptions, client disputes, and many other concerns. However, a significant issue with selling on the internet is online security. Entrepreneurs have to ensure their websites are secure to prevent cyberattacks and data breaches. Hackers can use these two to access sensitive customer data such as account login and credit card details.

If your e-commerce store experiences an attack or security breach, it can be catastrophic for you. Your brand reputation could be damaged, and your customers could lose trust in you. As a result, this could lower your sales and cause you significant financial losses.

Since customer confidence can be hard to regain, you must ensure you secure your e-commerce store and your clients’ information. How do you do this? Below are some strategies you could consider to boost your site’s security and reduce the risk of cyberattacks and data breaches:

1. Have An IT Expert On Your Team

Having an information technology (IT) expert on your team is essential regardless of the size of your e-commerce business. These professionals have sufficient knowledge and expertise to manage and secure your site, hardware, programs, data, and networks.

Besides that, they can also monitor all your systems, devices, software, and customer accounts. This way, they can identify data threats and prevent them from harming your business. As a result, your clients’ information will be safe, which will help you maintain their confidence.

Today, most e-commerce entrepreneurs aren’t hiring permanent IT employees. Instead, they prefer outsourcing their services to a reputable IT support company. These firms help them save some money on the employment costs of hiring an expert full-time. Also, since they use the latest solutions and technologies, they tend to be more efficient.

2. Use Strong Passwords

Your customers could also help you secure their data. To ensure this, encourage them to choose strong passwords when signing up for an account. For instance, advise your clients to use a combination of 8-12 characters with letters, symbols, and numbers. Also, as they create the passwords, ensure your site can assess them and disqualify weak ones.

On your side, ensure all accounts are regularly monitored. Also, if you notice at least four login attempts, make sure the account is blocked. This way, you’ll protect your customers’ information by preventing unauthorized access.

3. Shift To HTTPS

Another way to safeguard your clients’ data is to shift to Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS). This is a safer version of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which sends information between sites and web browsers. HTTPS is believed to be more secure since it’s an encrypted protocol that can help you enhance security during data transfer.

This means that if your e-commerce website uses HTTP, it’s not protected. Therefore, the data exchanged between your clients’ browsers and your servers will be viewable by everyone. By switching to HTTPS, you’ll ensure that customer information submitted to your e-commerce site is protected.

4. Get An SSL Certificate For Your Site

When your clients are in the process of transferring information from their web browsers to your server, the data will go through several computers. During this time, hackers can access it. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates like RapidSSL, GeoTrust SSL, Comodo SSL certificate, Thawte SSL, DigiCert SSL etc..  will help by encrypting links between all networked computers. Also, they’ll protect information transferred through servers like email addresses, names, bank details, and passwords by ensuring it isn’t readable. This way, they’ll protect customer data by ensuring it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.

Conclusion

Having an online store can be advantageous for entrepreneurs. However, e-commerce sites are usually at a higher risk of getting hacked as they contain sensitive data like credit card details. If criminals steal this information, they can use it to shop online. Therefore, your customers will lose money because your site didn’t secure their data.

Such an incidence can be catastrophic to your business. It’ll damage your reputation, and you could lose several clients because of it. Consequently, this could lower your sales and cause you to suffer financially. To prevent these, you have to make sure customer data on your e-commerce site is protected.

In this article, you’ll find some of the strategies you could implement to ensure this. As provided above, have an IT expert in your team and encourage clients to use strong passwords when creating personal accounts. Also, shift to HTTPS and get an SSL certificate for your online store.

Infographic created by Fiserv, an omnichannel commerce company