“Don’t shop online. You’ll get ripped off”

“Don’t shop online. You’ll get ripped off”

If you believe everything you see on TV, then the statement “don’t shop online, you’ll get ripped off” is one you’ll probably believe in too. However, the reality is that shopping online is as safe as shopping in a physical shop – without the hassles of parking, traveling, the security worries of having your credit card skimmed, and without the pressure of in-store sales people pouncing on you as soon as you walk in the door.

There are some steps you can take as a consumer to keep yourself safe, and as an online shop owner to demonstrate that you are a safe shop to visit. Here are our top tips for keeping yourself shop-safe online.

  • Look for the padlock sign on checkout.  The padlock indicates that encryption is active for the page, so that any personal details that you enter like your credit card information cannot be hacked as they travel over the Internet to be checked. If you are a shop owner, you will need to ensure that your shopping cart has SSL security enabled on checkout to be able to use this secure mode. Ozcart packages that accept credit cards include an SSL Certificate free for the first year.
  • Look for third party verification. Some businesses put the time and effort into getting their privacy policies verified by an independent third party. Companies that do this are more likely to be trusted.
  • Use a trusted payment method. The safest methods to use are ones where the online shop has an account that is trusted by a major bank or uses one of the well known payment methods in Australia like eWAY, e-Path, or Camtech. Known third party payment methods like Paymate, Stripe, or PayPal are also used by some shops. If you’re a buyer find out what payment method you’ll be using before you go through checkout and make sure that you’re comfortable with it. Ozcart store owners can choose from a number of trusted payment methods to offer their customers – you can see the full list on our shopping cart features page.
  • Don’t forget that online shops must pass rigorous standards before an account is granted to that company by a bank. So, look for logos of the main payment gateway providers in Australia like Camtech, eWAY, or the logos of the major banks.
  • Look for a known and trusted shopping cart provider. For example look for Shopping carts built by one of the main shopping cart providers on the first page of Google (not just the people that advertise there). The shopping cart industry is very competitive for companies like Ozcart selling shopping cart software services. So, if Google trusts a site enough for it to be on the first page, then that should give you a lot more confidence.

If you shop on a secure site and are careful about looking for the signs of a trusted company, then in our opinion online shopping carries no more risk than shopping offline!

It makes us frustrated when TV shows start scare-mongering about online shopping. The recent example of some Australian online shoppers being scammed with their credit card details published on an Asian websites does not mean that every online shop is unsafe. If a local bank or grocery store is robbed, or a friend of yours has their car broken into when parked at the local shopping mall does that mean that will you give up going shopping altogether?

Ozcart Ecommerce

Ozcart has been in business since 2006 and is an online, hosted shopping cart that you can use for your current or new online store. We offer so many features for the same low price. In fact, we are addicted to adding new ones to ensure that we remain one of the best choices for a shopping cart. https://ozcart.com

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