Fraud Matters to Online Shoppers – Make Sure It Matters to You Too

Online business owners face a great many barriers when it comes to establishing trust with their target audiences. Some of these are entirely within the control of the brand itself – reputation management, offering excellent service and being a generally reputable seller for example are all things an e-commerce business can control. However, when it comes to the way in which consumers look at the idea of web retail in general, there are some concerns that are simply too large and widespread to be ironed out across the board.A recent study has shown than more than half of all consumers that buy products or services online are worried about fraud. What’s more, a full 42% of people admitted that they would be more inclined to spend more online and shop more regularly, if they were to know that their details were safe and they could not realistically be targeted by fraudsters.     The study was carried out by Kaspersky Lab and B2B International and brought to light some fascinating findings. For example, well over half of those polled said that at some point in recent history they have abandoned one or more transactions before finishing them as they got the idea their data might not be safe. And while up to 60% insisted that it’s the responsibility of the users themselves and the banks to make sure that fraud and theft cannot take place, the role the store itself plays is crucial to say the least.While ever there is an Internet there will be cyber fraud and while ever we use credit cards and bank transfers, there will be those individuals and groups that try their best to hack into them. It’s a sad reality but a curse of the digital age we simply have to live with. And from the perspective of an e-commerce store operator for example, it represents both a challenge and an opportunity.In order to gain the trust of shoppers, security is of the utmost importance – that we can be assured of. As such, it’s crucial to think about this as carefully as possible when choosing a hosting provider and package as this and this alone could make or break the overall security of your site. You yourself can promise to be as careful with sensitive data as it’s possible to be, but if your hosting company leaves you wide open to attack, you’re basically playing with fire. And while the vast majority of instances of fraud are rectified pretty quickly by banks and lenders, the reputation damage you and your business will suffer could be permanent.The first time your hosting lets you down and your site gets hacked into, the last time those shopping there at the time will ever give you the time of day. Worse still, they won’t keep their opinions to themselves and in a world where an unsafe site represents the biggest turn-off of all to online shoppers, it might as well be you yourself that’s breaking the law for the bad reputation you’ll end up with.