Welcome back to my ongoing series on e-commerce. So far we’ve covered the online sales process and how it works behind the scenes. Next we’re going to address some common e-commerce concerns, starting with security.
Solutions to Common Concerns: Security
Since it’s so important, I’ve written about security before, including how to keep your website safe from hackers. Below we’ll review some of the most important website security points, as well as some e-commerce specifics.
- Ensure web security standards
- Use a good host – for engineering AND support
- Be able to easily contact them
- And resolve issues
- Probably not the cheapest host
- Siteground or WP Engine are both good options
- Maintain PCI compliance – for credit cards
- It’s the legal standard for the transmission and storage of credit cards
- Check with your Host
- And your Software
- Here’s some info about WooCommerce and PCI Compliance
- Safely transmit and store sensitive data
- You don’t want your customers info to get out, for legal reasons and your reputation
- WooCommerce handles this for you
- Ensure fraud protection
- Your shoppers are making a card-not-present (CNP) purchase
- Which opens the door for stolen credit card usage
- So be sure to prevent “Card Testing Fraud”
- Enable the fraud protection tools on your payment gateway
- Keep platforms and software up-to-date
- Monitor transactions and reconcile your accounts regularly
- Stay educated on the latest fraud tactics
- DDoS protection
- It’s when bad actors attack en masse
- Your host should have a plan for this
Every one of these security items could be its own post, but this covers the basics in one place. I’ll address some additional e-commerce concerns next time, including taxes, payment processing, shipping and inventory management. Until then please hit me up with questions any time!