7 Best Practices for Secure Online Payment Processing

Selling online? Keeping your customers’ money safe is key!

Whether you’re online-only or mix online and in-store, secure payments are very important. They make customers feel confident and boost your sales.

Not sure where to begin? Don’t worry! We’ll explore best practices that will ensure the online payments your business accepts are safe and secure.

The Importance of Ensuring Secure Online Payments

Paying online at your store should be safe and sound. That’s not optional, it’s a must. Why? Because customers won’t shop where they don’t feel secure.

Think about it like this: in today’s world, we all pay online from time to time. Whether it’s with a credit card, crypto, or an e-wallet, we expect stores to keep our payment info hidden and safe. We love online shopping, but if we worry our details might get stolen, we won’t buy a thing from your store.

But making payments secure isn’t just about avoiding trouble. It actually helps your whole business grow in the long run! Here are some reasons why:

• Higher trust from your customers. The more your customers trust you, the more money they will spend on your brand and the more likely they will be to give you a good recommendation to people they know in their social circles.
• Minimized risk of fraudulent activities. No one wants their e-commerce store to be used by bots or cybercriminals. By securing online payments, you can reduce the chances of your store being compromised.
• Superior customer experiences. When buying something at your online store is quick, easy, and safe, customers have stellar experiences and walk away with good feelings. This makes them more likely to come back again, boosting your revenue stream and increasing customer loyalty at the same time.
• Reduced risk of fees and penalties from the government. Legislation like the California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe make high-quality digital security a requirement for big e-commerce brands. If you fail to protect the information of your customers, you could face major fines and penalties.

Given these benefits, there’s no reason not to start implementing a few key best practices for secure online payments ASAP.

1. Practice a good password policy

Remember to use strong passwords! Make sure each one is:

• A mix of big and small letters, numbers, and special symbols. The more stuff you mix in, the harder it is to guess!
• Different for every account. Don’t use the same password for your bank as you do for your cat videos!
• Secret! Don’t write it down anywhere someone else could find it. Keep it safe in your head.

Keep your passwords strong and protected with apps like NordPass! This helps stop bad guys from breaking into your stuff, like your computer or online store. This also keeps your customers safe when they pay online, because even if someone steals their details, they can’t access their payments without finding another way in.

2. Protect physical POS hardware

If you run a blended retail/online brand, you probably have Point of Service (POS) registers and payment systems. These systems may interlink with your online payment systems and account tracking software.

However, your POS hardware can be vulnerable to attack. As an example, a criminal might try to install a credit card skimmer in your POS hardware. In this way, they can lift the credit card information from retail customers. But such a criminal might also get access to the online payment details of your e-commerce customers.

Keep your store’s cash register (POS) safe! If you have a physical shop, cameras are a good idea. Train your staff to watch out for suspicious things. Be careful about how you accept credit card payments. Choose machines that encrypt data and can spot fake card readers.

Think of your POS as a doorway to your online store. If you keep it secure, bad guys can’t sneak in and steal your data. So, make it tough for them to mess with your cash register!

3. Store as little data as possible

Businesses need to collect some customer info for things like selling, marketing, and keeping everyone safe. But don’t just hold onto everything forever! Storing more data than you need costs money, plus it puts your customers at risk if it ever gets lost.

Keep your data collection slim and trim. If you gather info you don’t actually use, get rid of it! This lowers your risk of problems, saves space on your computer, and makes it less damaging if someone ever steals your data.

4. Use point-to-point encryption

Protecting your customers’ payments online just got easier! Imagine scrambling your customers’ credit card and payment info into a secret code right when they pay. That’s point-to-point encryption! This superpower shields their data from prying eyes, even if it travels to other places like distant vaults.

So, bad guys can’t intercept it and cause trouble. It’s like locking their info in a super-secure safe, ensuring only the chosen one (usually the payment processor) has the key to unlock it. This way, your customers can shop happy, knowing their payment info is protected every step of the way!

5. Leverage strong customer authentication

Strong customer authentication, or SCA, is an important practice that requires any user logging into your e-commerce system to provide at least two out of three different identity factors. These include:

• Something they know, like a PIN or password
• Something they own, like a key or mobile phone
• Something they are, like a face or fingerprint scan

By requiring anyone who accesses your systems to follow SCA protocols, you’ll make it virtually impossible for a criminal to access your online payment system and customer information.

6. Only work with trusted third-party providers

Third-party providers like vendors, security companies, payment processors, and more could all be potential vulnerabilities in your online payment system. Therefore, you should only work with trusted, reputable third-party providers that are known to meet the PCI compliance standards.

If you aren’t sure whether a third-party provider is trustworthy, request a list of all their security measures and policies before signing a contract with them. You can also check online reviews of a given vendor to know whether other e-commerce brands have had good experiences with them.

7. Invest in fraud monitoring

Lastly, scams can cost your business big bucks, especially if they keep happening one after another. To keep your customers and yourself safe, watch over your online payments like a hawk. This way, you’ll be ready to jump into action if someone tries to steal data, mess with customer info, or launch any other digital attack.

Security is always the top priority

These best practices will help you provide secure online payments to your customers for a long time to come. Be sure to update your security software frequently, and always keep track of evolving cybersecurity practices and threats. The more consistent you can make the online payment experience, the more loyal your customers will become.