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Reassuring the customer

Once the security measures are in place, content on the merchant’s site can be used to reas-

sure the customer, for example Amazon (

www.amazon.com

) takes customer fears about 

security seriously, judging by the prominence and amount of content it devotes to this issue. 

Some of the approaches used indicate good practice in allaying customers’ fears. These 

include:

● 

use of customer guarantee to safeguard purchase;

● 

clear explanation of SSL security measures used;

● 

highlighting the rarity of fraud (‘ten million customers have shopped safely without credit 

card fraud’);

● 

the use of alternative ordering mechanisms such as phone or fax;

● 

the prominence of information to allay fears – the guarantee is one of the main menu 

options.

Companies can also use independent third parties that set guidelines for online privacy and 

security. The  best-  known international bodies are TRUSTe (

www.truste.org

) and Verisign for 

payment authentication (

www.verisign.com

). Within particular countries there may be other 

bodies such as, in the UK, the ISIS or Internet Shopping Is Safe scheme (

http://isis.imrg.org

).

Secure Electronic 

Transaction (SET)

A standard for  public- 

 key encryption intended 

to enable secure 

e-commerce transactions; 

 lead-  development  by 

MasterCard and Visa.

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