News

Norwich Cathedral had an online shop built for them over 4 years ago. The golden padlock and the crucial ‘s’ in the ‘https’ are symbols of trust and hallmarks of security for ecommerce. Whenever consumer associations tell you about the signs to look for that the online shop you’re planning to buy from is kosher - these are always the key things you’re told to look for even though the site may actually be secure without them if it has other encryption measures in place. And various studies suggest that without them you stand to lose between 5 and 20% of your sales. Aside from these signs, you can also add a trust mark to your site - these are branded links to the authorities issuing security certificates that establish that they really did issue it to you. And, according to Verisign, adding one of these should reassure the 70-80% of UK online shoppers who either only make purchases from sites displaying them or who would bail out of the purchase process if they didn’t see one. These measures are obviously very important commercially when this year ecommerce in the UK stands to reach £40 billion and the general public is ever more acutely aware of and concerned by credit card fraud and identity theft. With their host Mainline installing the SSL and security certificate and BridgingUnit integrating it all into their shopping cart software, sales at the Cathedral’s shop can now hope to benefit from the sense of safety and security these signals provide.