I have a small eCommerce store and previously used PayPal Website Payments Pro. As my business grew, I decided it did not make sense any more to continue with them. They keep a 30% rolling reserve for 90 days!
I switched to a merchant account with a lower discount rate and transaction fee with 0 reserves required. However , I now need to become PCI compliant within 60 days.
I know my shopping cart provider is PCI compliant, and so is my gateway. They (my provider) recommended a company that provides lower rates for their customers. The quoted price is $90 per year which seems very reasonable.
My question is, do those security badges displayed on websites such as hacker safe or identity theft safe actually help build buyers confidence?
My merchant provider has worked out a deal with security metrics to get the lower price. I paid for the service and had my site scanned. I put the badge in the header and in the shopping cart, so we'll see. The problem with making your own badge is it does not display a certificate when clicked, which I find very important.
I can agree with the $90 price. You can't find any in that price.
If I do any kind of shopping online, I would like to see this kind of security badge only at the last page or where I make the payment. If it follows me through out the pages, it would def make me rethink about this site. Why should they keep saying they are secured, weren't they were secured earlier?
Since data secutiry is a major concern of online shopper. It's very important to display your site certification from third party. $90 per years sound very reasonable to me.
They help build confidence. For you to know the effects of these logos on your website, you will have to do some kind of AB testing. See how your customers react to a page with the logo and a page without.
The $90 per year PCI scan is very reasonable. The standard nowadays is McAfee Secure. You can get a free PCI quarterly scan from McAfee secure by visiting.
pcistandard.com/merchantlevels.html
This won't give you the McAfee Secure logo, but this gives you the PCI scan for free. If you want the McAfee Secure logo, you will have to upgrade. McAfee Secure also has a Sales Analysis service. For a fee, they will help you do the AB testing. You also get into their merchant directory.
MIT_MAN,
I think the security badges do help, but it depends on your business and your customers.
Does anyone else have any experience with PCI and the security badges being displayed.
JimD
I am personally not a fan of badges. I feel they are a distraction to the uninformed consumer. Why raise a question of security when not needed?
If you plan on using a badge - make up your own! Just put a nice looking lock with some relevant text. It will serve the same purpose that $99 fee does. Anyone who was questioning the site will be fooled by it.
Maybe you could run a A/B test over a few months and see if it makes a diff?
When I was shopping for floor plans this morning the site had them on them.
laven11 | Window Shopper | 7/21/2010 - 5:59 am
MIT_MAN | Performer | 7/21/2010 - 3:11 am
alfredjr18 | Performer | 7/20/2010 - 12:35 am
makingmoney | Window Shopper | 7/19/2010 - 7:54 pm
teamextension | Contributor | 7/19/2010 - 2:53 pm
JimD | Former Moderator | 7/19/2010 - 12:34 pm
dnburns8 | Window Shopper | 7/20/2010 - 10:22 am
Join The Discussion
You must be logged in to join the discussion. If you already have an SBA Community account, Log In to join the discussion.
New users, Register for a new account and join the conversation today!