The first step to making your customers feel at ease when on your eCommerce website is to plan for and implement a secure setting in which their personal information is being transferred safely. With their assurance of safety, comes their business. Encryption is a must for any eCommerce website looking to gather personal data. This includes social security numbers checking account information, phone numbers, etc. Obtaining SSL would let you be able to assure your customers that their information was safe. SSL protocol, which is the Security Sockets Layer, uses an encryption code. When the client's information is transferred, the code is used to decipher the encryption. This will be a code that you, as the seller, will have. Make sure your server is only accessible to those who you have given permission. SSL certificates can be purchased online at companies such as Network Solutions, Globalsign and RapidSSL. SSL certificates with 128-bit is the one purchased quite a bit. This is because of the high level of security and data transfer capabilities. With the purchase of your certificate, you will receive a private and a public key. The public key is used by the buyer when entering personal information, such as checking account information, online. You, the merchant, will use the private key to decode the information sent by the purchaser. Make sure you purchase the right certificate for your purposes. SSL certificates vary with the merchants' needs. Another option would be using a payment gateway. A payment gateway is an e-commerce application service provider that authorizes payments for online business, retailers, and even the traditional land businesses. PayPal or iBill would perfect examples of payment gateways. They make sure that data is transferred from customer to merchant and from merchant to payment processor. The seller never has to see the customers' credit card or check information. This would be an even safer method of sending and receiving payment. The customer feels a bit more secure when sending through an established gateway such as PayPal. If you intend to go with SSL protocol, the next step would be to obtain your customers' trust. This will be very hard to do with some buyers. There are customers who will shop online obsessively and don't mind entering their information if they see a VeriSign other secure payment options. Then there is the customer that will buy ever so often when seeing the signs, but doesn't really like to make purchases online because of having to use their credit card information. The latter are the ones you have to convince. You should make sure that your website contains as much information as possible about the payment method you have chosen. This will ensure your customer and they may be willing to give it try. Another way of making the customer feel confident in purchasing from your website would be to design your site so that it is easy to navigate and user friendly. Frustration is a sure way to lose a potential customer.
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