Imagine entering a retail outlet and asking the shopkeeper your specifications about what you want to buy. Most of the times you convince the person what you want and you get your desired thing, but sometimes it so happens that your descriptions cannot be interpreted by the seller making shopping a boring experience rather than an enjoyable one.
But now the things are changing positively. With the emergence of e-commerce, people can search, buy and look for choices just at the click of a finger sitting comfortably in the confine of their homes. E-commerce has totally changed a consumer’s mindset about shopping. The industry of E-commerce marketing is only going to get bigger and better. From the smallest thing in your kitchen to the largest electronic item in your home, you can get everything online.
So what exactly is E-commerce?
In simple words money or business transactions which are carried through the medium of Internet. They can either be B2B (business to business), B2C (business to consumer) C2C (Consumer to consumer) or C2B (Consumer to Business).
- Advantages of E-commerce
- Improve overall customer experience
- Improves Brand image of a company
- Global Reach
- Reduces paperwork
- As a customer, options are many and quick delivery of products.
- Increases the productivity of the organization
However, every good thing also has a minus side to it and so has e-commerce. While this industry is growing at an unprecedented speed, there is also increased risk of false payments, dishonest transactions, and nefarious activities.
You should always have a secured e-commerce website as anything on the Internet is very vulnerable to online frauds and swindling. While developing an e-commerce website main concern should be the security of the site. Since you deal with a lot of customer base the trust in your website is an important factor. Customers would easily leave your website if they found that your website is insecure and their online transactions/information may be intercepted by attackers.
Some of the points to be noted are
- Confidentiality
- Authenticity
- Encrypted
- Auditability
We list down some of the ways to secure an E-commerce website
- Educate yourself-
To begin with, any kind of awareness should start with you. Equip yourself with as much knowledge as possible. You should educate yourself as much as possible with the different types of cyber-attacks which take place. For e.g. An SQL injection attack. It is a type of attack which completely destroys your database. It’s a common web hacking method. The solution to this is to install firewalls and use SQL parameters. Some attackers also use Cross Site Scripting attacks. The process involves using suspicious data and taking control over your accounts. Hence to help reduce and eventually mitigate such attacks a thorough research should be carried out.
- Start with the customers –
Protection against cyber-attacks is a two-way process. From the businessman’s side and from the consumer’s. A well-informed consumer, with a small bit of effort, can protect his or her own data. See to it that your customer does not use any weak passwords. Maybe you can send an email telling your customer about the common phishing attacks which take place. Informing your valued customer well in advance can help them prepare for threats and they can remain aware of the possible attacks.
- Access & Payment-
Your admin panel should be internally and operated by admin person only. It should be completely removed from public facing servers. Also, put a secondary authentication for accessing internal network. Moreover, when you choose checkout for customer, it should be secured and easy to operate. The checkout should be complied by PCI DSS guidelines. Also, enable address verification system and card verification value to reduce frauds in payment.
- Selection of Hosting:
Ecommerce requires web hosting that provides seamless functionality and maximum uptime to the website so users may not face any downtime. There are different types of hosting like standard hosting, reseller hosting, shared hosting, etc. If you are a novice and want to host your website there are many cheap Web Hosting providers who provides different plans according to requirement of business at affordable rates. Also, Hosting companies are providing many excellent features like unlimited disk space, dedicated IP, unlimited bandwidth, instant backups, etc. Although, you may choose ongoing deals and coupons that hosting companies frequently release for the benefits of customers.
- Setting up system alerts-
Organizations should set up alert notices to track any sort of doubtful or suspicious activities. Also, you can set up an alert for keeping a watch on multiple transactions by the same person who can use different credit cards. Compulsorily use tracking orders for all of your products. Since most of these deliveries are through shipping it is very important to have a tracking order.
- Setting up a protection wall-
In the most common language, a wall is something you build to protect from intruders. Here also you build a wall but of a different kind. A firewall is a system that works as a getaway between two different networks. It blocks any kind of malicious traffic from entering your computer or network. There are two types of firewalls. It should also be noted that just a layer security is not enough but you multiple layers of security. For that, there are various features such as contact forms, search queries to keep them guarded from your website.
- Application Getaways-
An Application getaway is like a checkpoint where all the information has to stop at. By using this type of protection for your networks it protects and hides your computer from other malicious information, only allowing authorized traffic.
Proxy Firewalls-These are even more secure than the normal firewalls. Why, because like application getaways they also serve as the mediator between two networks. However, unlike application getaways, an altogether new connection can be established. Such a type of protection implies that there is no direct connection between two systems making it almost impossible for attackers to steal your data.
- Update your system continuously-
Old versions of software and codes are most unsafe and prone to cyber-attacks. Such sites or programs may experience a security breach quite often. Your computer should always be updated so that you can to some extent protect your sites if not completely.
Prevention is the final solution. Running an e-commerce business is more than just designing and developing a website. The biggest responsibility which rests with the business owner is the safety of the transactions which take place.