The holiday season is probably the most exciting time of the year for ecommerce store owners. In 2016, $3.45 billion in online sales happened on Cyber Monday; and that number is set to be even higher in the coming years. There’s a downside to all this extra activity around the holiday season. Hackers and cyber con artists also know that more money is moving around this time. In order to protect your online business, it’s essential you heed some ecommerce cybersecurity tips for the holiday rush.
Make Sure Your Ecommerce Platform Is Secure
This rule applies for the whole year, not just the holiday season. But Cyber Monday and Black Friday are two times when your ecommerce provider will be put to the test. If you’ve had issues with security in the past, it’s best to switch to a more reputable provider before the holiday rush. Otherwise, you will be putting your customers’ data and your profits on the line.
Don’t Store Customer Data
There’s a reason why storing customers’ sensitive data violates standard security protocol. It doesn’t provide your store with any benefit, while also leaving people exposed to malicious parties. If you do for some reason have a backlog of customer data stored on your servers, make sure to delete it before the holiday season.
Be Ready to Implement Tracking Numbers
Tracking numbers will help to limit the prevalence of fraud during the holiday season. With so many orders coming and going, it’s not impossible for things to get lost in transit. By assigning tracking numbers to all of your packages, you can account for all shipped items.
Educate Your Employees on Security
This obviously doesn’t apply for one-person ecommerce operations. For multi-person businesses, however, it’s essential that all employees are on the same page when it comes to online security. Make sure all employees understand the importance of creating non-standard passwords. It’s also a good idea to only assign privileges to people when absolutely necessary. A good cloud ecommerce platform will allow you to give customized permissions to different employees.
Test Your System Before the Rush
There’s no turning back once the holiday rush begins. If your ecommerce store isn’t up to snuff, the shopping season isn’t going to wait for you to fix things. This is why it’s necessary to test your security measures ahead of the holiday season. This means making sure your software and firewall are up-to-date and running properly. It’s also a good idea to run a stress test to determine whether your site will be able to handle an influx in customers. Slow loading speeds are one of the major reasons for webpage abandonment.
Know What You’ll Do If Something Goes Wrong
It’s impossible to predict the future. It’s not impossible, however, to have a plan in place just in case something bad happens. All ecommerce store owners should make themselves familiar with some of the common security threats that affect online stores. By knowing at least a few of the things that could potentially go wrong, you will be able to have a plan already in place in case one of those things does unfortunately come to fruition. A quick response time is necessary during a crisis—especially during the holiday season, when huge profits can be made or lost over a short period of time. Having a backup plan ready to go can be the difference between success and failure for your ecommerce store this holiday season.
As an online retailer, it can be stressful trying to prepare for the busiest time of year. Make sure your ecommerce store’s security finds its way onto your to-do list. The ecommerce cybersecurity tips for the holiday rush will reduce the risk to your business and reputation.