Ecommerce has changed the way consumers shop. No longer does the traditional brick-and-mortar store reign supreme. Instead, online stores, by offering shopping convenience all day and all night every single day of the year, lure customers to their sites from all over the world. And as ecommerce sales continue to swell, the necessity of better ecommerce security grows more urgent.
There Is a Growing Demand for Ecommerce
According to reports from Statista, ecommerce sales are expected to reach $4.5 trillion by 2021. Moreover, retail commerce sales across the Asia-Pacific region are set to be greater than those in the rest of the world by 2023.
There are many reasons why this is so. For example, with an ecommerce store you can reach a global audience, even if your marketing budget is limited. Additionally, ecommerce stores don’t have the overhead expenses their brick-and-mortar counterparts have. Therefore, an entrepreneur can start an ecommerce business with only a small investment.
As a result, buyers can enjoy easily exploring millions of products on their phones and other devices.
Let’s not forget that ecommerce provides plenty of opportunities for landbased businesses as well, however. Both small and midsize businesses can boost their sales prospects by adding an ecommerce aspect to their portfolios.
However, every ecommerce site is vulnerable to security breaches and cyberattacks. Hackers lie in wait, eager to steal sensitive information. Therefore, while store design, functionality, and shopping convenience are important, online stores of all stripes need to prioritize ecommerce security features.
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Below are some important security tips for your ecommerce site:
1. Choose the Right Ecommerce Platform
Many ecommerce store owners establish their stores on platforms such as Magento and Shopify. This is not surprising, since these platforms offer excellent ecommerce security features.
Among your top considerations while selecting an ecommerce platform must be robust functionality, convenience, and security. Once these aspects are handled, you will be able to focus on your core business.
Ecommerce platforms such as Shopify may have the best ecommerce security features. However, even if you choose this platform for your site, you will still need to remain aware of other security measures and take action as necessary.
Rest assured, however, that most ecommerce platforms have secure payment gateways and convenient shipping methods, as well as high-level security features such as automatic security updates.
2. Switch to HTTPS for Better Ecommerce Security
Your ecommerce site must have an SSL certificate. When you do, your site’s URL will begin with HTTPS instead of HTTP. An SSL certificate provides protocols that encrypt sensitive information such as customers’ credit card information, user names, and passwords.
HTTPS represents the standard for ensuring security of ecommerce websites and other sites that deal with sensitive information. In fact, Google ranks sites with the HTTPS designation higher than web pages that lack it.
For example, SSL certificates such as Comodo PositiveSSL Wildcard enable you to secure multiple sub domains at affordable prices and easy installation. Moreover, enrollment provides a 256-bit SSL encryption.
3. Set up Strong Password Rules
In order to safeguard your website’s security and ensure customer information is safe from intruders, set up rules for strong customer passwords. For example, require the use of mixed cases, numbers, and special characters.
You might even want to offer your customers a two-factor authentication system to ensure greater ecommerce security.
4. Have a Data Backup Plan
Every ecommerce website must have a robust data recovery plan. Such a plan will necessarily include regular data backups. An effective plan can help to prevent the loss of vital data related to your business and your customers.
Therefore, be sure to discuss data recovery plans with your host provider. In this way, you will know what you need to do whenever you have a server failure. This is essential for maintaining security for your ecommerce site
5. Use Security Plug-ins for Better Ecommerce Security
It may be helpful to use plugins to add additional layers of security to your ecommerce site.
For example, Wordfence Security is a plugin that integrates a solid security system in your ecommerce store by way of a web application firewall. It offers real-time insights on traffic and prevents potential hacking attempts.
6. Don’t Store Credit Card Numbers
Some ecommerce platforms provide negligent security. For example, some offer offline credit card processing as a standard option for their customers’ payments.
This option stores customers’ credit card details without encryption. This allows the card to be processed manually, which means this mechanism is not safe. If this is what you’re offering your customers, you are putting your customers’ personal information at risk.
Instead, use a payment gateway provider to keep payments safe. Above all, do not store credit card numbers at all. Also, use PCI DSS accreditation to reduce credit card payment fraud and lead to better security on your ecommerce site.
7. Monitor Your Site Effectively
Of course, you have automatic backups and firewalls to ensure security of your ecommerce website. But it’s even more important to check your website code regularly for security issues. So scan all of your site’s code regularly to detect malware.
Keep in mind, too, that content delivery networks (CDN’s) have sets of servers that store copies of website pages. They can help to prevent DDOS attacks, which can significantly interfere with your business and harm your store.
8. Install a Bot Detection Mechanism
More than half of the traffic that comes to your ecommerce website is not genuine. In fact, much of it poses a security threat.
Sometimes bot traffic may be used by competitors to gain an edge over your business. But it’s safe to assume that most bot traffic is directed with malicious intent.
Therefore, you need to have a bot detection system in place. Such a system will have analytics tools for monitoring the source of traffic to and from your site.
9. Conduct Vulnerability Tests on Your Website
It’s a good idea to conduct regular vulnerability scans on your ecommerce website to detect security risks. There are various tools available that will allow you to do this.
Choose a program that will scan both your website and the network so you can understand the associated risks and issues.
10. Schedule Automatic Backups for Better Ecommerce Security
No matter which content management system (CMS) you are using for your ecommerce website, it’s necessary to keep it updated for better security. This will help to resolve issues, fix flaws, and prevent hacking.
Make Ecommerce Security a Priority
It is important to keep your ecommerce website secure and safe by using the best possible security measures. So stay up-to-date with the latest cyber security practices. Also, ensure your site is always backed up, and use effective encryption techniques. These measures will help to keep your ecommerce website secure.