Trust is the glue that holds together an eCommerce business. Creating a safe and secure shopping platform is the first and foremost to gaining customers’ trust. Data security has recently been a topic of discussion among the masses. People are concerned about how their shared data is used and if the information they share with online entities is safe.
Users share their personal and financial information to purchase any item from an online store. This information could include bank details, shipping addresses, phone numbers, credit/debit card information, etc.
Ask yourself this- would you purchase products from a shady website that can compromise the safety of your shared data? Probably not. Similarly, customers won’t buy your products if your store looks insecure. As a business owner, you are responsible for ensuring your customers’ safety and providing a seamless shopping experience. If your website feels safe, you’ll retain and gain new customers.
So how do you validate your website’s security to your customers and gain their trust?
A website’s security depends on various factors like software/platform updates, plugins, extensions, server health, etc. An eCommerce website needs constant monitoring to identify and eliminate any threats that could potentially compromise your website’s security.
Although there is a long list of tasks you must carry out before guaranteeing a safe shopping experience for your users, installing an eCommerce SSL certificate is the first and foremost step. It is the one thing you should never ignore.
Let’s dive deeper into SSL certificates and the urgent need to install them on your website.
What Is An SSL Certificate?
An SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate is an indicator that proves there is an encrypted connection between your website’s users and the server. It ensures a user’s sensitive information, including passwords, bank information, credit card numbers, social security numbers, etc., can safely travel over the internet.
So, how do you know whether your store is SSL certified?
Look into your address bar; if your website is SSL certified, you will see a closed lock symbol along with “HTTPS.” The “S” in the “HTTPS” signifies an SSL certificate.
If an e-commerce website uses HTTP rather than HTTPS, the browser will send all data to the server in plain text, making it easy for hackers to view and steal your data. In contrast, your website’s traffic will remain encrypted if it has a valid SSL certificate installed.
This article will discuss why you should prioritize getting an SSL Certificate for your eCommerce website and which certificate is best for your business.
5 Reasons Why You Need an eCommerce SSL Certificate?
1. Secured Transactions
An eCommerce website deals with several transactions on a daily basis, most of which include accepting payments and refunds. For facilitating financial transactions on your eCommerce store, your website must comply with PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) guidelines. SSL is a critical factor in PCI DSS policies. Without an SSL certificate, your website cannot process credit card transactions.
Let’s see how an SSL certificate helps in protecting the sensitive data of your customers.
The riskiest phase of a customer’s shopping journey is the checkout process. During the checkout process, the website prompts the user to enter payment details to initiate the transaction. This process might involve a third-party platform to complete the payment, or it might be completed through a built-in payment system on your website.
Here’s where cybercriminals try to intercept the card details of the customer. If your website is not encrypted, hackers can access and read the information shared by the customer during the payment process.
This is where an SSL certificate comes in. An SSL certificate makes it difficult for any third party to hack the information because the keys needed to decrypt it are only known by the web server and the web page.
Additionally, this assures customers that you are a reputable eCommerce website that takes precautions to ensure their data is secure and not exposed to risks.
2. Protect Password Login
More often than not, eCommerce websites require users to create password-protected accounts for making a purchase. This is a critical step as it helps businesses identify the preferences of logged-in users and provide a seamless experience by suggesting related products according to their preferences and offering exclusive loyalty discount offers.
However, this seamless shopping experience comes with a cost. User accounts store customer information. Enabling password-protected user accounts makes it easier for hackers to attack your store’s data. They can readily intercept information transferring from the website to the server and access the customers’ account information.
An SSL certificate protects your password pages by encryption and minimizes the risk of unauthorized attacks. Encryption keeps the passwords hidden, making it difficult for hackers to access the information.
3. Improved Search Engine Rankings
SSL certificates give a boost to your website’s SEO. Google recognizes SSL-certified websites as secure and prefers to rank them over non-certified websites. It may be a minor ranking factor for websites, but since eCommerce stores have limited resources to improve their ranking, this becomes an exceptional opportunity to rank higher.
Popular browsers like Chrome and Firefox will flag your website as “Not Secure” to visitors if your website doesn’t have an SSL certificate. This negatively affects your store’s reputation as customers don’t prefer to shop from insecure websites.
Despite not being mandatory by Google’s standards, it avoids indexing websites that are not encrypted. In short, SSL plays a crucial role in boosting your eCommerce SEO efforts.
4. Faster Loading Speeds
Page loading speeds are crucial in determining the success of your store.
Many people think SSL slows down your page loading speed. In reality, SSL makes your page faster.
HTTP2 is a new advancement in web servers that SSL-certified websites can only use. It transfers files faster, uses a single connection, and swaps bulky text data for binary. This makes the website exceptionally faster relative to HTTP and HTTPS.
If you have SSL installed and your web server can support HTTP2, upgrade to HTTP2 and use its advantages.
5. Secure Webforms
Payment and Login information aren’t the only things that you want to protect on your website. An eCommerce store is a hub for storing user data such as leads, questionnaires, email addresses, customer addresses, etc. Both you and your customers wouldn’t want such information to leak.
Some web form emails can be hacked if your website lacks an SSL certificate. To keep such user data safe, installing an SSL certificate is recommended.
Which SSL certificate is best for your store?
Now that you know that SSL certificates will help you protect your user data and gain the trust of your customers, let’s check out the various options available and which one would best suit your needs.
An SSL certificate is issued by a third-party authority called Certificate Authority (CA). There are three types of SSL certificates-
Extended Validation Certificates (EV SSL)
Extended Validation Certificates are the most secure and expensive form of encryption.
After installation, the URL of your website includes the padlock symbol, HTTPS, the domain name, and the country.
To obtain an EV SSL certificate, the business owner must complete a standard identity verification procedure to demonstrate that they are the sole owner of their domain. Extended validation confirms the entity’s existence legally, physically, and operationally, in addition to authenticating who owns the domain name registration and the entity. The verification process is lengthy, and receiving an EV SSL certificate might take a few days or weeks.
ECommerce giants mostly prefer this form of certification as it provides the highest level of security. We recommend small and medium-sized businesses not jump on the hype train and avoid installing this SSL certification as cheaper alternatives are available.
Organization validation certificates (OV SSL)
Organization validation certificates offer high security and are comparable to EV SSL in terms of assurance of authenticity. It displays business information alongside the website information in the certificate.
Small, medium and large-sized store owners should invest in an OV SSL certificate because it’s secure enough yet cheaper than EV certificates.
The Certificate Authority can ask for business documents, bank statements, and domain information from the provider to validate the authenticity of the business. Once all things are verified, the certificate is displayed on the website’s address bar.
Domain validation certificates (DV SSL)
Domain Validation eCommerce SSL certificate is the cheapest certification available. It offers low-level encryption to websites, compared to the certificates mentioned above, making them vulnerable to security breaches. DV SSL certificates are verified by emailing or calling the site owner. This makes the verification process the fastest and easiest to complete.
You can use a DV SSL certificate on websites that don’t store sensitive customer information, like blogs and personal websites.
This certification might not provide you ample security, but it will surely help boost your search engine rankings and enhance your page loading speed without making a dent in your wallet. DV SSL is not suitable for eCommerce stores as it is vulnerable to data leaks.
SSL certificate gives your customers a clearer picture of your organization. EV SSL is the most transparent, while DV SSL is the least.
Final Thoughts
As we discussed earlier in this article, trust is the pillar of any eCommerce business. The website owner must protect customers from data leaks and financial fraud by offering them a safe and secure shopping platform.
Failing to provide a secure website will result in loss of customers and negatively affect your brand image.
An SSL certificate is vital in securing any website, especially in eCommerce websites that store large volumes of customer data. It alone won’t guarantee your website’s full-proof security, but installing an eCommerce SSL certificate is the first and one of the important steps to securing your website.
