When running an online store, you really have to do all you can to protect it from frauds and scams. There are (and always will be) people trying to take advantage of other people and websites, especially those that require payments to complete a transaction like online stores do.
Your online store will NEVER be 100 % safe, however, you can implement security measures that make successful attacks and frauds very unlikely. These measures will help you:
- protect you customers, their personal information and their money,
- protect yourself, your company and your money.
Keep reading and discover the best ways to protect your online store by Viktor from WebCreate.Me, reviewer & tester of ecommerce WordPress themes.
1. Choose a secure ecommerce platform or have one tailor-made
Your ecommerce platform is the corner stone of your online store’s security, when it comes to preventing frauds and other kinds of ill-minded activity. Your choice of ecommerce platform will influence virtually every single decision you will make running your online store, including the potential decision to change the platform itself if it doesn’t meet your requirements over a long term period.
All ecommerce platforms include at least some forms of fraud detection and fraud protection functions. These functions are very often not sufficient to completely protect your site, however, the better the “default” protection of your system, the better off you will be right from the start.
If your ecommerce platform is safe and secure, you will have less problems to deal with along the way. That’s why you should always be very cautious when picking the ecommerce platform, you will use to run your online store.
You could, of course, change the platform later on but that can also be a hustle. Some of them are very flexible and allow you to transfer your online store to another platform very easily, however, other may “lock you down” and make any potential change extremely difficult.
2. Monitor all orders
A big part of potential fraudulent behavior on your online store may come from people trying to misuse personal and/or payment information of other people and simply steal stuff.
This kind of behavior can often be spotted at the first glance but in order to find it, you actually have to monitor and check all orders. That is fine, as long as the number of orders you receive is not too big. If the orders are too numerous, it might be beneficial for you to have the monitoring (at least partially) automatized.
How to stop a fraudulent order? Try checking the shipping address, billing address, IP address or the address associated with used credit or debit card. If any of those rise a red flag, look into the order and try resolving it.
3. Require your customers and employees to use strong passwords
Strong passwords are very important nowadays. Computers are strong and weak passwords can be cracked in a matter of minutes or hours. Be sure to implement security measures that require your customers and employees to use passwords with sufficient complexity, in order to make sure their accounts are reasonably safe.
It is also a good idea to enforce a mandatory regular password change, but always consider if it isn’t a bit of an overkill. Regular changes might be overly tedious for many people.
But that isn’t the case for your customers and, of course, yourself. The staff of your online store should be required to keep their accounts as secure as possible, because they are almost certainly connected to some form of administrative power. Keep your staff informed about security and make sure their user accounts are in good hands.
4. Implement a secure payment service or payment gateway
Payment is one of the most sensitive parts of the process of ordering goods or services online. Credit or debit cards are the most widely used form of payment and your customers want to keep their credit card information private. That’s why you should use a secure payment gateway that adds another layer of security to your online store.
Payment gateway should support the use of CVV (Card Verification Value – the 3 digits at the back of every credit and debit card) and AVS (Address Verification System).
The former is pretty well known, however, the latter one might be something new for you. AVS compares the address your customers used as the shipping or billing address to the address associated with the used card. If they don’t match, the system produces a warning or doesn’t let the payment happen at all.
5. Use tracking numbers for all outgoing shipments
People ordering products from your site and claiming they haven’t received them is another kind of fraud you should try to protect your online store from. Of course, stuff really does get lost and some of these claims may be truthful, however, you should always implement measures that allow you to find out what really happened.
Use tracking numbers for all packages you send out and communicate with the shipment company you use to avoid unnecessary chargebacks that might really hurt your business.
6. Consider using fraud detection and prevention services
Do you find doing all the work associated with fraud prevention a bit too much? You might consider investing in a good fraud detection and prevention service that will do all of it (any possibly much more) for you. These services will ensure your safety and security, as well as provide your customers with a frictionless buying experience.
However, don’t be mistaken. They are not cheap. In fact, they are pretty expensive. If you find this idea appealing, do some research and inquire about the price for your specific online store.