And the Valuable Customers who shop online
They say the first thing that inspires consumers to act on their desire to purchase a product is trust. And this is vitally important in the online
e-commerce marketplace. Contrary to popular opinion, a large portion of the total consumer segment is still leery about purchasing merchandise online without some level of support and trust in knowing the website they are using is 100% SAFE and SECURE.
The truth is that as secure as some websites might think they are, anybody with half-a brain and some basic computer hacking skills can easily steal your companies - and more importantly, your customer's private financial information. This not only will reduce your product sales, but pretty much ensure that the customer who had their information stolen on your website will not return to buy from you in the future.
As an owner of a pretty successful company which relies on our e-commerce shopping cart to generate merchandise sales, one thing that became vitally critical to me two-years ago was that with all the online marketing, sporting event sponsorships, and even direct links in social networking sites we provided tens of thousands of fans of our product - our online sales were quite frankly pathetic. We were bringing in less than $5,000 per month in revenue for a product which people loved to consume and were not yet available in local stores.
The question we had was why were sales so low?
Then, we got the best email from a potential customer who asked us, "Which SSL security software is your website verified with?" Our company is very good at replying to emails, so I took it upon myself to reply to the customer with a simple - yet stupid reply when I stated, "What is an SSL Security Software and what does that have to do with purchasing online?"
Needless to say, the lecture I got was rather educational to say the least. It was humbling as well, so I decided to do some research about consumer confidence with e-commerce shopping. According to a report published from OneUpWeb.com, nearly 75 % of all online consumers they surveyed only purchased merchandise from a website which displayed a trustworthy seal of security - Like the Norton Secured Seal or VeriSign Checkmark and the Comodo SSL Certificate.
This prompted us to do some research and find out how expensive this was going to cost us. We were shocked to learn that we could have a highly reliable SSL Certificate and program to protect our customers for less than $100.00 per year when we installed the Comodo SSL Certificate for Small Business.
Now, I don't know how this program works, but basically what I was told by a few hard-core computer people at our company was thanks to a unique encryption program that receives over 99% of trusted value for most of the internet browsers on the market, when people visit your website and they see the Comodo Certificate on the website, this provided them a sense of security knowing the website was secure. In turn, when want to purchase merchandise, they are safe to complete the transaction without somebody hacking into the network and stealing their private information.
What was the result of this change?
Well, our sales grew from an average of $5K every fiscal period to doubling sales volume in less than a month. We didn't do anything different in marketing our product, just simply made sure that our website was safe and secure.
The Comodo Small Business SSL program is definitely awesome, but it certainly is not the only one on the market. If you're a business owner, take it upon yourself to make sure your website is secure to provide that trust you need to develop with your important customers. This is the only way you can built trust online with your consumer segment, so find an SSL program that works best for you to ensure you develop that trust with your customers from the beginning.
They say the first thing that inspires consumers to act on their desire to purchase a product is trust. And this is vitally important in the online
e-commerce marketplace. Contrary to popular opinion, a large portion of the total consumer segment is still leery about purchasing merchandise online without some level of support and trust in knowing the website they are using is 100% SAFE and SECURE.
The truth is that as secure as some websites might think they are, anybody with half-a brain and some basic computer hacking skills can easily steal your companies - and more importantly, your customer's private financial information. This not only will reduce your product sales, but pretty much ensure that the customer who had their information stolen on your website will not return to buy from you in the future.
As an owner of a pretty successful company which relies on our e-commerce shopping cart to generate merchandise sales, one thing that became vitally critical to me two-years ago was that with all the online marketing, sporting event sponsorships, and even direct links in social networking sites we provided tens of thousands of fans of our product - our online sales were quite frankly pathetic. We were bringing in less than $5,000 per month in revenue for a product which people loved to consume and were not yet available in local stores.
The question we had was why were sales so low?
Then, we got the best email from a potential customer who asked us, "Which SSL security software is your website verified with?" Our company is very good at replying to emails, so I took it upon myself to reply to the customer with a simple - yet stupid reply when I stated, "What is an SSL Security Software and what does that have to do with purchasing online?"
Needless to say, the lecture I got was rather educational to say the least. It was humbling as well, so I decided to do some research about consumer confidence with e-commerce shopping. According to a report published from OneUpWeb.com, nearly 75 % of all online consumers they surveyed only purchased merchandise from a website which displayed a trustworthy seal of security - Like the Norton Secured Seal or VeriSign Checkmark and the Comodo SSL Certificate.
This prompted us to do some research and find out how expensive this was going to cost us. We were shocked to learn that we could have a highly reliable SSL Certificate and program to protect our customers for less than $100.00 per year when we installed the Comodo SSL Certificate for Small Business.
Now, I don't know how this program works, but basically what I was told by a few hard-core computer people at our company was thanks to a unique encryption program that receives over 99% of trusted value for most of the internet browsers on the market, when people visit your website and they see the Comodo Certificate on the website, this provided them a sense of security knowing the website was secure. In turn, when want to purchase merchandise, they are safe to complete the transaction without somebody hacking into the network and stealing their private information.
What was the result of this change?
Well, our sales grew from an average of $5K every fiscal period to doubling sales volume in less than a month. We didn't do anything different in marketing our product, just simply made sure that our website was safe and secure.
The Comodo Small Business SSL program is definitely awesome, but it certainly is not the only one on the market. If you're a business owner, take it upon yourself to make sure your website is secure to provide that trust you need to develop with your important customers. This is the only way you can built trust online with your consumer segment, so find an SSL program that works best for you to ensure you develop that trust with your customers from the beginning.
1 comments:
Brilliant. I just love all the points you have suggested in this blog post. Its really necessary for an e commerce site to have some amount of protection for its customers.
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