By Shawn Mike
As one of the single most important technological developments of all-time, electronic commerce (eCommerce) has changed everything. The ability to buy items not just across the internet but using mobile devices (mCommerce) changed things further still. Sadly, as is the human way, we often find quite horrible ways to ruin good things.
It’s long been a part of the human psyche: an innate desire to just ruin and break. It’s come from everything from robbing banks and stores to becoming used to things like bank fraud and even armed robbery. However, another unique problem exists today – unsafe purchases online.
Indeed, online fraud has become a wide-reaching problem which costs billions every year. The cost to those who lose out might often be refunded, but it’s an immense emotional toll. A failure to have the right protections in place has seen many companies move to try and create new technologies to make online purchases a touch safer.
It is important, though, that we are vigilant and honest about the risks which can be used by online technology when we make a purchase. With the risk of exposing vital personal details greater than ever, it’s important that we quickly draw as much attention as we can to the potential for fraud when making a purchase online.
It’s one of the most common problems that we can face today; something that we absolutely need to try eradicated as quickly as we can. How has that happened, though
Secure Socket Layer Protection
Go back a decade or so, and SSL protection was still growing across the online sphere. Today though? It’s a major part of day-to-day protection online. If you use a website and you cannot see the little sign in the corner of the domain name, the little green padlock, then you would be advised not to make any purchases on that platform.
If you happen to click on said padlock, you will know exactly what you are dealing with. It will give you a much clearer idea of the issues that you face, and it will help you to solve the problem at hand nice and easily. Secure socket layer protection has become a very important tool, though, as it is a clear and obvious symbol that we have the protection that we need all around as us as we work.
So, if you are someone who wants to know how the internet is developing to keep you safer, just look for that little closed padlock sign. It will be the clearest idea that you need to make a change to the way that you manage your purchases. If you go to make a purchase from a site that might not have any of the usual SSL protection expected today, then you might just need to keep shopping around.
It’s better to keep looking than to just make a quick purchase and hope that it turns up: getting refunds isn’t always quite so simply, sadly.
PayPal Guarantees
Another major tech development in recent years was that of PayPal. It’s the payment processing tool many of us use to pay for items when we would rather keep our credit card details to ourselves. When you go to make a purchase online, you should make sure that you are happy to hand over the details that you do. For those who want an extra shield, then PayPal can give you all the help that you need to really take things to a new level of safety.
With PayPal, most users can find that their purchases are guaranteed. If a product and/or service does not arrive to the standard that you would have wanted, then you can very easily change it around and put in a PayPal dispute. With PayPal, you are more or less guaranteed to get value for money: the days of having to worry about not getting a refund are likely gone. With PayPal, the fear of having to see your dispute come down to the scrupulous nature and ethics of the seller are gone: if the purchase was proven not to be of the correct standard, you can easily ask for your money back – and get it.
In an era where many of us still feel quite uneasy about the prospect of buying items online, the PayPal Buyer Protection that you can use as a shield is very much a worthwhile benefit for you as time goes on, and can make buying online feel safer.
PayPal’s first priority is to protect their customer, employee, partner and merchant data. Therefore GDPR, considered a fundamental shift in privacy and data protection.
Social Media
Though not essentially a tool for making online purchases safer, it has had an indirect impact on the world of online purchases and sales. You see, someone is far less likely to try and be fast and loose with your money or satisfaction if they know they are just one viral complaint away from ruining their business.
Many people avoid using social media because they worry I will have a negative impact on their life. With social media, though you also have immense power over a business: you hold their very reputation within your hands. With that in mind, you can more readily make a positive and decisive impact on their business simply by using social media to help put yourself in total command.
If you have had a bad experience, then a comment on their social media – or directed at them on social media – can be enough to make the business think twice. Today, a company is far less likely to be unscrupulous purely on the basis that it’s easier to tell the world about their lack of ethics.
In the past, a website would be long shutdown and rebuilt elsewhere before anyone would find out about the scale of their poor practices. Today? You can tell the world within a very short period of being let down. For that reason, you can really make a business think twice about how they would treat you.
As you can see, then the world of online commerce is transformed from its earliest days. Today? it’s a much safer place to be, thanks to the very technology which made it possible in the first place.
Shawn Mike provides ghostwriting and copywriting services. His educational background in the technical field and business studies helps him in tackling topics ranging from career and business productivity to web development and digital marketing. He occasionally writes articles for Internet. @ishawnmike
Safe shopping stock photo by David MG/Shutterstock
