E-commerce is a growing industry. It has made new businesses possible and made shopping easier and faster. Unfortunately, every advancement in modern technology brings new, unpleasant, possibilities. Aside from hardware, and software, problems, the major concern is security of payments.
With identity theft on the rise, as more unscrupulous individuals engage in such illicit activities, there is an ever growing need for improvement in the security of online transactions. Measures such as encryption of sensitive information, once only necessary for high-risk transactions, of great value, are now required for the simplest of transactions (even the purchase of a toy) due to the great possibility of significant financial loss. Such an event can result from an unauthorized individual gaining access to someone’s credit card information and using it to purchase several expensive items, or perhaps wire money, in the person’s name. This can, and has repeatedly, ruined numerous lives and buried good people in debt.
All things considered, it is well worth it for a webmaster engaged in e-commerce to gain the trust of his/her clients by implementing stringent security measure, or investing in a host that does this for its clients. While the costs may be greater, the following advantages are gained by signing up with a high end web host.
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- Such hosts are often highly reputable, and take great care to protect their reputation by maintaining an excellent standard of service, critical in security.
- They have usually invested heavily in state-of-the-art technology to make their service as secure as possible. Often, complex data encryption is employed to ensure that transaction data cannot be read by unauthorized third parties.
- Many offer a guarantee of their security and will reimburse clients, fairly, for losses sustained due to a failure in the service provided by the host. This provides peace of mind to the webmaster running his business.
- Finally, they often offer certification for ecommerce sites that will let users of the website be assured of the site’s security, making them more likely to do business with the merchant. Not many consumers, these days, will buy from a website that doesn’t provide some credentials for its security.
Money spent on security, by employing high end web hosting, is money well spent as it gives webmasters, and their clients, the confidence that transactions are handled safely. This will, in turn, increase sales if people are more inclined to trust a business, and reduce loss due to fraud etc. Any serious webmaster should look into a high-end web host as a necessary part of their investment capital, to avoid devastating future losses – or even immediate failure due to a lack of customer trust.
Make sure you fight all the dangers of e-commerce, and give your clients a reason to trust you!
