Give consumers confidence in your site

While online shopping is definitely on the rise, many people remain wary of e-commerce. Their fear centers on the transmittal of personal and financial information over the internet and the perceived risk of releasing sensitive data unscrupulous eyes. Unsolicited e-mail campaigns, rumours of hacker break-ins and media coverage of unethical web commerce practices further intimidate would-be-customers.

Understanding and addressing customer concerns about online buying are critical to your small business' success selling on the web. Here are some steps you can take to encourage customers to give online buying a try:

Address security issues directly

Include a statement on your web site that informs buyers about your policies. Two elements are important to this statement: what security you have in place to protect transmitted data and what you will and will not do with the buyer information. Most customers feel more comfortable buying from someone who agrees not to release their contact information or buying patterns to outside parties.

Guarantee your security

Demonstrate your confidence in e-commerce. Consider guaranteeing payment. This will encourage buyers to trust your system. Accepting responsibility for this payment will also allow you to remove one of the most common barriers to shopping online - percieved financial risk.

State your security record

Most customers are surprised to learn how infrequently security breaches occur. If your site has never had one, say so. For example, web bookseller amazon.com clearly states that none of its 3 million customers have reported fraudulent use of a credit card resulting from purchases made at the site.

Flaunt your protection procedures

If you take extra steps to ensure buyer information is protected, let visitors know. For example, if your secure service provider makes a weekly effort to break into its own system, just to reinforce security, state this fact on your site. You may also want to mention the technology you have in place by name. Many consumers are familiar with secure socket layer (SSL), Secure Electronic Transaction Protocol (SET), and digital signatures certificates that help authenticate the identity of all parties involved in a transaction.

Seek out approval from the consumer organizations

Certain organizations offer seals of approval for online shops that meet their standards for conducting business. Displaying one of these marks on your site accomplishes two things: it alerts consumers that you are legitimate business and serves as a virtual beware-of-dog sign for would be hackers.

Use statistics

Round up some numbers that testify to the safety of online purchasing. You can find these statistics within the web sites of research organization such as Gartner group and Forrester Research, as well as within sites devoted to computer industry news such as ZDNet. You may not want to clutter you homepage, so consider providing a link to another page within your site that houses these statistics.

Provide alternatives

Some consumers will never agree to transmit personal information across the Internet regardless of what assurances to supply. To capture these customers, offer alternative methods for buying your business' product and services once they have learned about your offerings and your company online. One page of your web site can direct them to fax, phone, or mail for order fulfillment.