In this business, we’re all doing our best to avoid scams, frauds, and rip-offs, but as a wholesaler or retailer you should be aware of what your customers are doing to avoid them, too. This is becoming more important every day, as headlines stories about the “Stuxnet” computer worm, and Internet security in general, are all over the news. Now, I’m not suggesting we cover the ins-and-outs of computer security on one blog post… but rather, we’ll just take a look at the general beliefs that many of your customers – especially at the consumer level – may have about computer security in general.
There’s a few things that we all know, but there may be a couple of surprises in this list. Knowing these points will make you less likely to appear as a scammer, and help you to bypass nervous consumers who are sometimes starting to get paranoid about connecting to the Internet. This is going to be especially important as we enter the holiday season of online sales and marketing in 2010, so read on!
Some things are common sense – like the old, basic warnings about giving away your passwords, or letting somebody know extremely personal data that could be used to compromise your security. However, there are more sophisticated ways for thieves and scammers to penetrate the walls of defense these days, as we near the holiday season of 2010, and they will certainly be using them in greater numbers. You really should get to know them so you can avoid looking like them.
Some sites are asking for personal identification, like Social Security numbers, and addresses. Of course there are some people who will readily give this information away, if they think they are dealing with a shop or seller whom they trust. Unfortunately, many people have been burned by scammers this way, and it’s going to be a deal-breaker for anyone in the wholesale or retail business who is legitimately trying to make sales, but doesn’t take the steps to provide customers with 100% confidence.
Another thing we should thank the scammers for is bank payment fraud. Consumers are getting pretty leery about giving their account information, especially if they are visiting your site for the first time, or if your site doesn’t display the appropriate verification to show that it’s trustworthy. Having a partnership with a banking institution or a lending partner is a great way to provide the extra links and logos for consumers to do a quick check with, and to speed them towards making the sale.
One of the most widely-publicized forms of fraud is the type that involves payments through Western Union, Moneygram, wire transfers, money orders, and other related forms of payment. Be careful when making things easier for your customers by offering various different payment options, since some of those kind gestures will often be misinterpreted as scam attempts.
There’s a bunch of social networking sites and even some more professionally-oriented ones like LinkedIn, that are trying to boost their membership numbers by offering you the option of using your email account to find others who are in your network. It’s become a great way for scammers to grab your email password, too. Now that people have been hurt by this, it could also hurt you if you ask for this kind of information when populating your email mass marketing lists, or even your own social networking profiles.
Encourage your customers to use strong passwords when they sign up with you. It only takes a few bad experiences for your site to start getting a bad rep, and it’s so easy to prevent it in the first place. A password that looks like “marley123” is pretty weak. Something like “67Hg.jhCX.X3Y.qn” is damn near bullet-proof.
Be careful when adding extras to the sale by providing last-minute deals and steals. It can be perceived as an attack from an outsider, if you don’t make sure to keep it in tune with the theme of your site. I know a lot of us have outsourced graphic artists or departments that don’t communicate too well under the pressure of holiday sales rush, but if your ads and banners don’t at least tie-in to the color schemes and styles of your site, it could be dismissed as a fake. Then you’ve lost a sale.
Web browsers have security features built into them, and you should get to know what they are. To put it simply, if you are a legit seller, but my browser is showing that your security certificate is out of date, or unknown… a worried Internet user might be inclined to click out of there, before “something bad” happens.
Stop the pop-ups! Not only are they annoying, but they are very old-school, and very easy to ignore. Not only that, but many anti-virus software packages will even block them automatically, so the dollars you’ve spent on them could be going nowhere at all. Just let your site shine, and keep visitors engaged.
There you have it! It’s a lot of information… but it’s just the tip of the iceberg in computer security issues. Get to know the things that your customers will be looking out for, and you will be able to keep yourself at the top of their lists when it comes time for them to click the “buy” button on your site. Good luck, and have a great time as we approach the holiday sales blitz of 2010!
