While stationary sales to consumers in the retail sector continue to decline, e-commerce is setting new sales records every year. Digital progress is fundamentally changing the buying behavior of many customers and age groups. Many start-ups, micro, and small businesses see this development as an opportunity but underestimate the complexity associated with the issues of information security and data protection.
Whether an online store is secure or not is already decided in the planning phase, because it is not enough to simply transfer the conventional sales concept to the web. The close integration of process flows into the overall company results in interfaces that can become weak points for security.
It is essential to gain the trust of customers by creating and maintaining the security foundations for e-commerce.
Without the necessary background knowledge of the technologies used, possible vulnerabilities, and their remediation, ignorant operators lull themselves into a deceptive sense of security – their own store will already be subject to the applicable security requirements. Security is also an important concern within web hosting.
It’s important to look at several different security measures that your hosting company might take to keep your site secure.
To show customers that their data is in safe hands, many retailers rely on seals of approval, for example. But are seals of approval really suitable as an indicator of the correct handling of personal data?
Encrypted transmission paths from the customer to the store system are helpful, but trained employees and communicated rules for handling sensitive data are at least as important. However, purchasing processes with too many security hurdles often lead to abandoned purchases, especially among younger consumers.
Online stores should therefore make these processes secure and professional, but also as simple as possible without sacrificing effective security standards. Very important for many online shoppers is also a secure but uncomplicated checkout process.
The easier and faster a customer is guided through the checkout process, the better and more likely it is that no purchase will be abandoned.
Often Emerging Vulnerabilities Within the e-Commerce Sector
Contents
Store operators should be aware of the following security vulnerabilities and take appropriate measures to address them in a timely manner.
Security gap No. 1: No basic security
Online offerings must be secured against a wide range of threats.
Security Gap No. 2: Data Theft
Data theft can be realized in many ways and needs to be watched out for.
Security Gap No. 3: Old Software
Once the web store is set up, hardly anything is changed in the near future.
Security Gap No. 4: Session Hijacking
Web stores that do not use session cookies – small program snippets that are temporarily stored on the user’s computer during the use of the store, so that the visitor does not have to identify himself again on the server.
Security During the Checkout Flow
During the process of payment and checkout, online shoppers pay particular attention to transparency, security, and convenience. The most important criteria from the consumer’s point of view are data security and the availability of the desired payment method.
The checkout and payment process has a major influence on the satisfaction of online shoppers. Transparency and trust can be created, for example, through value and service promises as well as seals of approval.
Trust-building elements in the form of online seals of approval are a good and reliable way of showing potential customers at a glance that they can store safely in your online store and also rely on excellent service.
Online stores with cachets look more attractive to customers and ensure an authentic and professional appearance. Seals of approval also prove the seriousness of your online store and give your potential customers a feeling of security.
Magento Checkout Security
What Is It?
Magento works on multiple fronts to quickly identify and fix security vulnerabilities. Measures are taken to avoid and fix security vulnerabilities. There are pre-built functions in the Magento code to check input (e.g. from forms) for security, feed it securely into the database and also output it securely. When changes are made to the Magento code, automated tests run to prevent new bugs from being introduced. Magento’s internal security managers actively try to track down complex scenarios where security vulnerabilities arise.
It is a very secure e-commerce system where several standards and features are linked together. These include SSL/TSL, PCI-DSS/PA-DSS, patches, and other measures, which are explained below.
SSL and TSL:
Magento offers a pure SSL strategy, which means that all communication is always done over an encrypted SSL connection between the end user’s browser and the Magento application.
PCI-DSS / PA-DSS:
PCI-DSS stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. This standard refers to merchants and their processes, as well as employees who may come into contact with payment-related customer data.
Patches:
Magento releases patches for its e-commerce system to close security gaps as quickly as possible.
Why Is It Important?
More security and more trust for Magento online stores are offered by the Magento 2 Checkout for Trusted Shops. The integration into an existing Magento 2 system adapts the checkout process of Magento 2 so that Trusted Shops awards its seal of approval and thus complies with legal requirements.
How Users Perceive Security During The Checkout Flow
According to an e-commerce checkout usability study by the Baymard Institute, 69% of all e-commerce visitors abandon their shopping cart regularly. A great issue is that users continue to feel insecure about sharing their payment information with e-commerce sites. The findings of the study indicate that there are 2 important user behaviors related to security:
- Depending on the design, users perceive some parts of a page to be more secure than other parts of the same page.
- The average user’s perception of a site’s security is largely determined by their “gut feeling”, which – beyond how much they trust the brand – is to a large extent observed to be directed by how visually secure the page looks.
A visual checkout process is very important for many online shoppers. Show your customers in a process display or a progress bar, at which step of the checkout process they are. Each completed step seems like a small sense of achievement. However, the motto here is: less is more. Also, offer your customers the option to navigate back to previous steps and review them if necessary.
Therefore, the user’s sense of security can be enhanced by visual cues, such as adding a solid background color to credit card fields, placing site seals in close proximity to card fields, using (virtually “meaningless”) padlock symbols, and other visual reinforcements.
Wrapping Up
So, there you have it. Now you know about the possible security vulnerabilities in e-commerce sector and how to fix it. If you have any questions regarding this topic, ask them in the comment section below.
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