Online transactions are more important to small business growth than ever before, and it’s easier than ever for a tiny business to find success by utilizing low-cost resources online. Not only do businesses have the ability to reach a wide consumer audience through social media and build up the business’s brand, but these merchants can then turn user engagement into real conversions (sales!) and ship products across the country, or even across the world.
Don’t believe that online card not present transactions are so important? Consider these statistics for a minute:
- Over 65% of Americans, 50 years and older, made a purchase online in 2014.
- 72% of Millennials, ages 20 to 35, have researched a product online before making a purchase in-store.
- Globally, eCommerce generates about $1.2 billion every 30 seconds (that’s right — every 30 seconds).
- Forrester Research predicts that online sales will grow from $231 billion in 2012 to at least $370 billion by 2017.
Of course, the actual process of online shopping isn’t just about finding products and then magically acquiring them; merchants must set up secure payment processing systems for the card not present transaction process. And consumers are definitely expecting (or hoping, at the very least) that merchants will fight credit card fraud as much as possible before it even happens:
- 60% of consumers are still worried about credit and debit card fraud when they make online transactions.
- Losses incurred by merchants and issuing banks due to credit card fraud and chargebacks was $16.31 billion in 2014; this was a 19% from 2013.
- Merchants pay about 10 times more in fees and fraudulent charge refunds than issuing banks pay, and they pay about 20 times more than what consumers lose due to credit card fraud.
Not only do businesses have to protect their customers during online transactions; they also have to protect themselves.
Now it’s time for you to decide: Does your business have the necessary protections in place to participate in the world of eCommerce?
