Developing an eCommerce Website: 7 Must-Do Privacy Steps

Setting up a website is effortless these days. You buy your hosting, find a platform, pick a name, and voila – you’re a site owner. The real challenge comes when you need to develop every bit of it before it goes public. It continues when it goes live since your task is to keep it safe and secure.

With digital crime growing every day, keeping a website safe from fraud and hacking is challenging. During Covid-19 there were up to 30,000 cyber attacks every day. Any competent business person whose success depends on online sales knows that a significant breach or several small chargebacks can kill everything they’ve done since the start.

Privacy & Security On eCommerce Sites

Selling your products or services online has a huge earning potential. It offers you a more expansive and virtually unlimited reach. According to Statista research, around 270 million Americans make online purchases in a year. That brings a total of $548 billion into the eCommerce industry every year.

However, the money you’ll be receiving from your eCommerce store, i.e., the website, won’t change hands invisibly. You’ll need people’s information, a lot of which is personal, to process their payments and deliver the products and services. Unless you have a good privacy and safety strategy in place, this will be impossible to do.

Did you know that every month, there is an average of 249 fraud attempts? In 2018, it prevented only 182 fraud attempt and in 2020 FTC received over 2 million consumer fraud reports.

People are warier of the rising online crime than ever. They put extra caution into sharing their personal information, which means that people won’t trust you enough to buy from your website unless you put safety measures in place.

The online world is highly reliant on word-of-mouth. It means that, even if you suffer a smaller hack that doesn’t hurt your company badly, the word can spread pretty fast, instantly ruining your reputation and credibility.

Not to mention, failing to implement the necessary safety measures can equal breaking the law. You’ll be up for penalties and consequences. It’s why if you’ve decided to put your eCommerce business idea into action, you need to take all the precautions to keep privacy to an optimal level.

Critical Privacy & Security Tasks

Here are the critical privacy and security steps that every eCommerce website creator should take.

Get familiar with the applicable laws

As crime grows online, so does the number of security steps businesses need to take to keep their customers safe. Data is beneficial to companies these days. It allows them to sell products, track the market, analyze and create their marketing strategies, and communicate with customers. However, it is as much of a threat as it is an asset.

The call for strengthening the data privacy of consumers has been heard all around the globe. Every year, we hear new legislative changes that ensure consumers’ privacy and security who buy things online. There are currently 100 countries spanning six continents with privacy laws in place, attempting to protect internet users’ information.

If you want to build a trustworthy business and avoid legal issues, you need to operate within the confines of the laws applicable to you. For example, if you’re in California, you should constantly be up to date with the latest ccpa laws and regulations. These are carefully crafted to keep consumers safe.

The California Consumer Protection Act or CCPA is one of the latest additions to privacy laws worldwide. It was enacted on January 1 of 2020. At this point, eCommerce businesses had more than a year to understand and ensure that their companies are doing the necessary to protect consumers.

With that in mind, before you put your website online, you need to make privacy your priority—this is the best way to get started.

In addition to ensuring that your website complies with the CCPA regulations, ensure that you’re informed on other applicable laws and regulations. Why is this important?

GDPR, for example, (the European Union privacy law) requires all companies who sell to customers within the Union’s borders to be compliant with their rules and regulations. If you want to avoid harsh penalties, you should get familiar with their regulations also.

Trademark your logo and company name

Your business might be new for now, and therefore, there’ll probably be little interest in stealing it. However, as it grows, you might be a victim of identity theft – but for your company. The most essential tip an eCommerce business person can get these days is to trademark their company name and logo.

Before you choose a name, make sure that it is clear to use as a trademark. Finding an available domain name does not mean that your choice is known as a trademark. To ensure that no one will try and take your company name and logo, you need to go through this process as soon as possible.

If you don’t know how to register a name as a trademark, seek a legal professional that will process your request through the Patent and Trademark Office. Registering your company’s and website’s name protects you against infringers, future copiers, as well as knockoffs.

Pick a secure eCommerce platform

There are many choices in terms of where you can open your eCommerce store. But, if you want to enrich consumers’ privacy, you should take this step very seriously. Building a store on Software-as-a-Service platforms like Shopify or BigCommerce is an excellent idea since these sites help you build, host, and keep your store safe.

In most cases, eCommerce platforms are chosen for their convenience of use, functionality, range of design, and security features. The goal here is to find solutions that provide SSL certificates, encrypted payment gateways, and suitable authentication protocols for buyers and sellers.

Use HTTPS

SSL or Secure Sockets Layer is a security technology that allows you to establish encrypted links between browsers and web servers. Using HTTP with SSL ensures that all data through the web server and browser remains integral and private. It’s vital if you wish to ensure your customers’ privacy and keep the eCommerce transactions secure.

Having HTTPS websites means higher Google rankings, improved security, increased customer confidence, and conversions.

Keep the website updated

Not only should you update your site to meet the latest changes in laws and regulations, but also to prevent fraud. Yes, website owners can also take measures to reduce the risk of being hacked. As of 2019, 56% of all the traffic online comes from automated sources like spammers, impersonators, hacking tools, and bots.

Unpatched extensions and applications make websites very easy targets. This is why you should always keep the site and its back-end software updated with new security patches.

Opt for strong passwords

Those bots and hacking tools are a brute force of hacking. They put endless combinations of letters into a site attempting to enter it. Unless you have a strong password, they might get lucky and crack it. Then, it won’t matter what type of site you have or which laws you’ve tried to follow – they’ll be in.

So, make strong passwords to enter your site, but also request strong passwords from your team. Have your employees use strong passwords, a combo of different-sized letters, symbols, or numbers. Also, remind people to change their passwords often, like, for example, twice a year.

Even if your site has flawless security and many measures in place, many websites’ weakest links are customers. People tend to have poor password hygiene. They’ll use the same passwords or try something very simple that they’ll remember easily. That being said, have some rules in terms of password creation for your consumers. This is to keep their data safe, so you’re doing them a favor by asking this, too.

Also use MFA (multi-factor authentication) wherever you can.  Your clients will thank you for it.

Learn to recognize the signs of fraud

Your job does not end when you take measures to create a safe website. To keep people’s private information secure, you need to remain alert at all times. Fraud prevention can only be as successful, which is why you need to learn to recognize the signs of fraud and stop it before it is too late.

To do this, take a peek at the types of emails used to sign up, the customer order history, check for suspicious emails, etc. Keep in mind that fraudsters target higher value items and usually have their orders shipped to obscure addresses.

Final thoughts

The eCommerce industry can be fruitful for those with a clear idea and quality products and services. However, if you want to succeed and survive in this market, you must put the customers’ privacy as one of your priorities. Remember – this is never a one-and-done deal. Threats change and evolve every day. At this time, the smartest move you can make to keep your reputation and business intact is to maintain a security-focused mindset.