The concept of Black Friday and Cyber Monday has evolved an incredible amount over time-- with sales starting earlier, discounts getting bigger, and offering these sales both in-store and online. It's no surprise that this year, retailers are moving the majority of their sales to solely an online platform to avoid large crowds and follow safety precautions during a pandemic. 

We've already learned this year that hackers and cyber attacks are more present than ever with the rise in remote work and the need to do many things virtually-- and online shopping this year will be no exception. Whether you are an online consumer or an online retailer, we've rounded up a few hacks, well, to avoid the hackers. If you're an online retailer, keep reading! If you're an online shopper, click here.

ONLINE RETAILERS

Keeping customer data safe and secure builds trust with not only your customers, but also the partners, vendors and other people you do business with as well. Aside from that, data breaches can be costly, and sometimes difficult for small businesses to recover from. Here's a few ways to ensure your site is safe.

PROMOTE STRONG PASSWORDS.

No matter how secure you build your website, sometimes the weakest link could be your customers and how strong or weak they choose their password to be. We often choose the same password for every single account ever made, or we use obvious passwords like our name or even things like "password123," which is basically welcoming hackers to steal our identities. To protect consumers from, well, ourselves, enable password requirements when users create a customer account on your website. Require a certain amount of characters, one capital letter, a symbol, etc. Another great way to protect their identity and your liability, is to require a 2FA, or a 2-factor authentication. This makes them double confirm their identity by sending a confirmation code to their phone or e-mail that they have to enter at log-in.

CHOOSE A SECURE E-COMMERCE PLATFORM

When you are choosing an e-commerce platform, look for platforms that offer encrypted payment gateways, SSL certificates and solid authentication procedures for both buyers and sellers. You also want to make sure you are selecting a scalable platform that can support the growth of your business and accommodate the future of your business.

USE A SECURE HTTPS SITE

HTTPS (HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure) is an online protocol for secure internet communication-- HTTPS sites are one of the easiest ways to protect your site from any fraudulent activity. To enable HTTPS, your business just needs to obtain an SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate (could be already included in your e-commerce platform)! Having https at the beginning of your website gives you instant credibility with your shoppers, but one of the greatest benefits is that Google ranks HTTPS sites higher on search engine rankings-- higher search engine rankings = more traffic directed to your site. Google also notifies website users when a site is unencrypted/unsecure. Research from 2019 cyber security studies show that nearly 30% of online shoppers abandoned a transaction due to lack of visible security. Needless to say, an HTTPS is a great place to start when securing your site.

DON'T STORE SENSITIVE USER DATA

Only ask for information that is necessary to complete the transaction. Asking for any irrelevant, additional information from consumers is just more information that a hacker can obtain and use during a cyber attack. Furthermore, asking for additional information could come across as an inconvenience to the customer, leading them to abort the transaction as a whole. Never store credit card information -- consumer privacy is critical in the e-commerce world.

OBTAIN A CYBER LIABILITY POLICY OR E-COMMERCE INSURANCE

To protect you from the costs associated with data breaches, product defects and other liability, e-commerce insurance is critical in preventing detrimental financial loss to your business. For a lot of small businesses, a data breach would be a financial loss that could be impossible to recover from. If you already have a policy, now's a good time to review your coverage limits. We can help-- click the link below to start the quote process and look into your e-commerce insurance options.