If you run an online business selling goods or services, then you need a way for customers to make purchases online. In this kind of transaction, people need to trust your business when entering in their personal and financial information in order to make their payment.

It’s important that you focus on building trust with your customers or else they won’t be willing to hand over their information to you and make any purchases. That’s why you should partner with merchant services providers like Swift Payments who offer payment gateway solutions that are PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliant and use secure encryption to protect data.

Take Steps to Secure Customer Data

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is designed to ensure that any organization that accepts, processes, stores, or transmits credit card information is doing so in a secure environment. When using online payment processors that utilizes industry-leading security features, make sure that you are clearly displaying so on your website.

Show off security certifications during the checkout process and provide more info in an FAQ or help box. Listing the security features you have in place will help your customers feel more comfortable in sharing their private information with you. Without these features, they may turn to a competitor who can offer them security.

Show that You Take Customer Privacy Seriously

The type of information you will be collecting from customers includes their phone number, email address, name, credit card information, and more. On the same page that they enter this information, make sure you include a disclaimer that clearly states that this information will not be sold or distributed to third parties, and that it will only be used to process the transaction.

Including this message on your website is important so that your customers feel more comfortable in that their information won’t be wrongfully shared. Without this disclaimer, they may be turned off from using your services over worries of having their privacy breeched.

Make Shopping Easy and Secure

Online payments are meant to be easy, so while security is your number one priority, you should also focus on designing your website so that it is easy to use and easy to make purchases on. If a customer is frustrated by their user experience on your site they are likely going to give up and leave without completing their payment.

Check out this article for tips on how to design your checkout page so that it encourages people to finalize their purchase. Too many people end up leaving their cart empty because something about a checkout page deters them from completing a sale.

One key takeaway is to make sure that customers can clearly see where the checkout page is, and that there are multiple ways for them to get there. Once on the checkout page, use clear design that makes payment process easy, and be sure to include the above tips about security and privacy.

By following these tips, you should see a boost in conversion as your customers can count on you to provide a secure and seamless user experience.