Cybercriminals are spreading their tentacles to every business. This means that not even eCommerce sites are left out. As many people have shifted from physical to online shopping, eCommerce sites have become a goldmine of sensitive data.
Therefore, your online shop must do all it can to maintain privacy and protect its customers’ data. To get you started, we shall examine why data privacy in eCommerce is important. Then, we shall examine the steps to achieve that.
Why you must Protect your eCommerce Sites’ Customers’ Data
In this subsection, we shall take a peek at why it is important to protect the data of your eCommerce site customers. Let’s begin.
Minimizes Customer Churn Rate
Data privacy and protection reduce the rate at which customers want to stop doing business with you. It reduces your bounce rate and increases your conversion rate.
Professionalism
Protecting your customer’ data shows your eCommerce site knows how to handle its customers according to set standards.Â
Attracts Partners
Suffering a data breach could cause potential investors or partners to keep you at arm’s length. So, with a good data privacy and protection plan, other entities will be willing to form a partnership with you.
Financial Troubles
Considering your customer privacy will save you from a huge financial loss. This financial loss could come from data theft, recovery, or legal issues.
6 Steps to Maintain your eCommerce Customers’ Data Privacy and Protection
Hackers know the weight of the customer data your eCommerce site owns. Hence, they won’t back down until they find a way to steal them. To avoid this, we shall outline ways by which you can assure the privacy of your customers and protect their data.
Educate your Customers
As an online store owner, take it upon yourself to educate your customers about data privacy in eCommerce. Explain to them what you’ll ask for and never ask for. For instance, let them know that you’ll never ask them to send their CVV (Card Verification Value) via email or other forms of communication.
Prompt them never to share their login credentials and ensure to change them regularly. Likewise, tell them to update their browser and software frequently.
Use a PCI-compliant Payment Provider
Since you sell products on your eCommerce store, you would need to ask for shoppers’ card details to process their fees.
To avoid financial fraud, entrust your payment processing with a PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) Compliance. These companies include Visa, American Express, MasterCard, etc.
These companies follow the standards to process, store and transmit your customers’ card details.
Collect Minimal Data
Gathering a few essential data is better than collecting numerous strings of unneeded data. So, collect only the data relevant to the kind of products you sell or the business you run.
Install an SSL Certificate
You need to install an SSL certificate on your online store if your customers have to share sensitive information with you. An SSL certificate encrypts the data customers share with your eCommerce store. It, therefore, protects the information shared from theft.
The certificate also protects your store from different data breaches. When you carry out the installation on your store, it switches your website from http to https. So when users and Google see it, they know your online store is safe.
Ask for Strong Passwords
While signing up on your online store, some customers want to use ‘1234’, ‘password,’ or ‘111111’ as their passwords. Doing this is unhealthy for data privacy in eCommerce.
When customers sign up, ask for strong passwords. Suggest to them how to create strong passwords. Better yet, you could give them a set of requirements to follow. Let your customers know that the stronger their passwords, the more difficult it is to hack their accounts.
Be selective with eCommerce Platforms
If you are looking for an eCommerce website for your business, there are tons to choose from. Nevertheless, do not base your selection on the popularity of the platform. Instead, research and see which of these platforms commits to maintaining their users’ data privacy and protection.
Cybersecurity has become a necessity for every business. No business type or size is excluded from keeping its customers’ data private and safe from hackers. That said, you must remember that data privacy in eCommerce is non-negotiable.
Keeping your customers’ data private and safe will rank you above your competitors. In contrast, your customers will continue to make purchases in your store.
