How to Protect Your Online Store from the Internet Burglars, Part 2

Written by Lynne Schlumpf


Thanks for joining me for Part 2 of this important article about how to save your store from online thieves.

Here's a scenario that will help you identify who is savvy to credit card fraud and who is not.

Let's say that John Smith runs an Internet store that sells books. His store is called Leaflets for Life. Customers order, then he shipsrepparttar product a few days later.

We have another Internet store owner named Joe Black. He runs a computer parts store called Laptops 4 U. The owner of Laptops 4 U is aware that his merchandise is THE HOTTEST ITEM to steal onrepparttar 109054 Internet. (besides credit card numbers, of course) John Smith puts his feet, turns onrepparttar 109055 satellite TV, and letsrepparttar 109056 Internet run his business silently.

John Smith gets a sale on his online store. The order is for 300 books. John lovesrepparttar 109057 wayrepparttar 109058 Internet allows his business to pretty much operate on autopilot. He knows thatrepparttar 109059 3rd party vendor he uses to take all his credit card sales took care of it, so all he has to do is print an invoice and pack it up. Off he goes withrepparttar 109060 merchandise torepparttar 109061 post office, marveling at his first sale from his store.

Joe Black gets a sale on his online store. The order is for a $3,500.00 laptop. He does not use a 3rd party vendor for his credit card processing. He just has a store that uses Secure Socket Layer, then it emails him with a link that he clicks on to take him to his orders. Joe Black's process takes a lot more administrative work, but he feels in control of his business. He really wants to be aware of what goes on every minute. Joe, or whoever prints outrepparttar 109062 orders fromrepparttar 109063 store, takes a long, leisurely look at this order. He knows what he is looking for. He givesrepparttar 109064 order to a orders clerk. The orders clerk picks uprepparttar 109065 phone, dialsrepparttar 109066 number onrepparttar 109067 order. "Mr. Jones, hi, my name is Angela. I work here inrepparttar 109068 customer service department, and we are verifying your order from our online store. To protect your security could you tell us if you ordered items from our online store today, and if you did, could you please provide us with some verification of your order. We WANT TO PROTECT YOU. Could you please give usrepparttar 109069 800 number onrepparttar 109070 back of your credit card and your bank's name?" Customer: "Uh, who are you trying to call? This isrepparttar 109071 roller skating rink in Topeka, Kansas." Angela thinks that perhapsrepparttar 109072 person who ordered just mistypedrepparttar 109073 phone number. She gets out her list of merchant phone numbers and calls up Mastercard. "Hello, My name is Angela, and my company is Laptops 4 U. We are a merchant onrepparttar 109074 Internet, and we need to somehow verify that a card number used on our online store was not stolen." Mastercard happily gives her address ofrepparttar 109075 cardholder and other information that tells Angela that her company could have lost a laptop and possibly their merchant account whenrepparttar 109076 credit number does not go throughrepparttar 109077 system.

2 Percent Conversion Rate

Written by Kurt Geer


Do you wonder whyrepparttar industry average of conversion rates of a customer buying on web sites is only 2 percent?

Have you tried to purchase anything online from some of repparttar 109053 Big Boys? I have a feeling that it's a game with them to load allrepparttar 109054 graphics they can and slow down their sites to berepparttar 109055 slowest loading sites onrepparttar 109056 net. Once you getrepparttar 109057 site to load they make it almost impossible and frustrating to try to purchase from them.

What aboutrepparttar 109058 consumer who is ready to buy, if they findrepparttar 109059 product they are looking for when they hitrepparttar 109060 site ? Why do some sites make it so difficult? You have to get outrepparttar 109061 magnifying glass to figure out how to purchase, findrepparttar 109062 product, and surf thru 6 pages to purchase.

Click==>gone!

Once you do purchase from them onrepparttar 109063 special that ends at midnight tonight, for a saving of 10 percent and it doesn't arrive withrepparttar 109064 other products that were purchased atrepparttar 109065 same time, it really gets frustrating to send an email to customer service and get a reply thatrepparttar 109066 shipping deptarment is looking into it, and not getting back to you with an answer for two weeks. The kicker is thatrepparttar 109067 site wasn't updated soon enough to takerepparttar 109068 out of stock product offrepparttar 109069 site before I was lucky enough to purchase it.

I am torepparttar 109070 point that if a site does not have a phone number or contact email I will not purchase from them, period! Inrepparttar 109071 last year there have been a few problems with products that I have purchased online and trying to straighten them out withrepparttar 109072 company has been next to impossible. One ofrepparttar 109073 only ways to get any satisfaction is to stop payment thrurepparttar 109074 credit card company that you purchasedrepparttar 109075 product with.

Granted some folks are to scared to purchase online for fear Their credit card info will be stolen or sold. These people are going to be a real hard sell and won't convert until they are ready to do it themselves, and some of these people may never purchase online.

Cont'd on page 2 ==>
 
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