You put a lot of time and energy into growing your online brand. But what happens when unscrupulous scammers decide to ruin everything by defrauding you and your customers?
From chargeback schemes to phishing, there are many different ways these criminals can attempt to ruin your good name and cause tons of problems for everyone. Thankfully, there are certain steps you can take to minimize the chance of this happening.
To help you protect yourself and your business, our CAKE team of experts has put together this brief guide. Here are our best eCommerce digital marketing tips for keeping your eCommerce website secure and preventing fraud.
Regular Security Audits
The good news is that most eCommerce store platforms like BigCommerce and Shopify are already pretty secure. However, it is good to conduct periodic security checks to uncover any issues before they become big problems.
Look for things like whether your SSL is working and if there are any necessary plugin upgrades. You should also scan your website regularly for malware and ensure anyone with access to the backend dashboard engages in strong password best practices.
By looking at the information security side of things, you can often fend off these flaws before they become weak points fraudsters can leverage.
Require Credit Card CVCs
One common way scammers attempt to commit fraud is by using stolen credit card numbers to make large eCommerce purchases. As a retailer, you can help prevent this by simply requiring the three-digit CVC on the back of the card before processing the order.
In most cases, this requires having the physical card to find the number. If the thief doesn’t have this number, they won’t be able to complete the purchase.
While it might sound like a little step, it really can prevent bigger problems like chargebacks after you’ve fulfilled the order and more.
Keep Collection of Customer Data to a Minimum
Not all fraud involves a scammer placing an order. Sometimes, hackers simply want to tap into your customer database and steal important information about your shoppers.
The good news? They can’t steal what you don’t have. That’s why it is super important to keep collection of personal data to a bare minimum of what you need to process the order. Avoid things like social security numbers, birthdates, and other super personal information. (Collecting birthdays for bonuses? Collect the month and day, but not the year.)
Limit Non-Physical Shipping Addresses
Another way to reduce fraudulent activity is to limit shipping to non-physical shipping addresses. Many scammers like P.O. boxes as a way to make purchases that aren’t legitimate. After all, this lessens the chance they’ll get caught if law enforcement comes looking for them at the post office.
By requiring a physical shipping address, like a business or a home, you can help keep these types of transactions from happening. Furthermore, this gives you a good starting point to file a police report if there is an issue.
Use HTTPS for Added Protection
One more way to protect your customers is to ensure your website has hypertext transfer protocols secure (HTTPS). While this is automatic with the major eCommerce shopping platforms, you might need to activate it with WordPress-based websites.
What does this do? It prevents information from becoming easily hacked on your website and broadcast across the internet. As a side note, this is a good idea for all websites, even those that aren’t online stores.
Preventing eCommerce Fraud
While it isn’t always easy to protect your brand and shoppers from fraud, there are certain steps you can take along the way to help minimize issues. By implementing the various ideas we’ve included in this guide, you can ensure you’re protected against scammers and hackers.
Ready to learn how to implement a few of these techniques? Please contact our CAKE team of eCommerce marketing strategists today for details on all our eCommerce marketing services!
