Just Started a Business? Protect Your Online Payments Smartly!
The world has gone digital and protecting your data and monetary transactions has become a top-most necessity, especially when you are a small business owner. Chances are high that most of your customers are online shoppers and they strongly expect that your business will keep their online transaction details secure.
Just imagine why would your customers make a purchase from you if they can’t trust that you will protect their debit/credit card information? That is why ensuring that your customer’s payment data is secure must be your top-most priority. Ultimately, it will benefit your business’s bottom line.
For small business owners like you, it may seem complicated and overwhelming, but it is simpler than you think. So, how can you defend against online breaches to improve online transaction security? You have to get familiar with online fraud first before we discuss protecting your eCommerce store from fraud.
While there are different types of online fraud, there are usually two categories:
Account Takeover:
Most eCommerce stores provide their customers with accounts that store financial data, personal information, and purchase history. One of the most common tricks used by fraudsters is emailing your customers into revealing their credentials and password. They will use it to log into the customers’ accounts, change the password, and use the accounts.
It’s not uncommon for hackers to sell your debit/credit card numbers to other scammers who will open new accounts with eCommerce merchants to make unauthorized purchases using the stolen transaction credentials.
Identity Theft
Even when your business takes the precaution to secure customer data, scammers can still hack into their database. They can steal passwords, usernames, bank details, and personal information. So, let’s talk about how to secure online payments effectively
Best Practices to Secure Online Payments
1. Employ A Trusted E-Commerce Platform
First thing first, if you are running an online business, you will need a highly trusted and reliable eCommerce platform. Some of the industry leaders such as WooCommerce, Shopify have heavily invested to ensure their platform’s top-level security. A reliable e-Commerce platform safeguards your store’s online payments in a way as if someone is watching your back.
Different e-commerce stores require different layouts, modes of operations, security packages, and security systems. However, selecting the best one solely depends on your business model and business objectives. Seek the expert help of professional e-commerce app developers to discuss whether the platform can suffer serious threats or not!
2. Verify the Transaction
Talking about verifying transactions, there are multiple ways that you can do it even when a customer’s card is not present.
Always ensure that there is an address verification match
Your customers need to enter their three or four-digit CVV number present on the back of their cards
Paying attention to smaller details like strange email addresses, shipping addresses known for frauds, customers not using the perks of free shipping
3. Update All of Your Systems
It is obvious that outdated systems are more prone to virtual threats. Whether it is your business website, server’s c-panel, PHP, SQL, or your antivirus software, you must ensure that every system and software is updated regularly with all the new features available out there. Usually, these updates occur automatically but it is best to cross-verify that you are running the latest version of any software that you use for your business.
4. Accept Online Credit Card Payments on Your Website
You can add a simple payment form to your business website so that you can accept credit card payments through online gateways. Businesses can do it easily by outsourcing the services of an online payment platform that:
Oversees secure precess of payments
Hosts the payment form
Safely stores the payment information of your clients with their consent
5. Accept e-checks Through Direct Transfers
It is another safe way to allow your clients to easily transfer the payments directly from their bank accounts to yours. You just need to accept eCheck payments that let your clients use banking information like account number, routing number, payment amount, and authorization. The best part is that fees of the eCheck payments are lesser than that of the credit card payments.
6. Accept Mobile Payments
If you are running a business outside of a conventional office setting, accepting mobile payments can be a safe and fast option to receive payments quickly.
Over to You
We hope you found this guide useful to secure your online payments as a small business owner. Remember running a virtual business is a highly competitive field, so you always need to stay on the top of the security levels.