How To Make Online Payment Processing Secure and Efficient

In the past few years, online sales have grown substantially. This virtual gold rush in the world of eCommerce has resulted in a number of businesses setting up online stores. If you are the owner of an online business, payment security and efficiency is something you should be concerned with.

Failing to improve payment security can result in the sensitive information on your website being compromised by cybercriminals. When this happens, your reputation will be damaged and your ability to gain the trust of consumers will be negatively affected.

Are you trying to make online payment processing more secure and efficient? If so, here are some things you can do.

Invest in Data Ingestion Technology

One of the main things an online business needs to thrive is lots of data. Collecting data can help you create user personas. These personas can be used in things like marketing campaigns and in the product development process. You can also use data to identify potentially fraudulent financial transactions.

The collection of this information is a complex process known as data ingestion. So, what is data ingestion? Basically, data ingestion is a process used to collect data from multiple sources for the purpose of analysis. High volumes of data are ingested and used to identify payment and bank fraud.

With this technology in place, you can add more security to the online payment process.

Match Billing and IP Addresses

A recent study found that nearly 80 percent of Americans make at least one purchase a year online. As eCommerce websites continue to grow in popularity, cybercriminals are looking for ways to gain access to the financial information collected by these online entities. Failing to take payment processing security seriously can have a long-term negative impact on your business.

Reducing the number of fraudulent transactions on your website will be much easier if you match customers’ IP addresses to their billing addresses. If there are discrepancies between these two addresses, it is safe to assume that the transaction in question is fraudulent.

If you want the ability to check these two addresses, then investing in address verification service (AVS) software is a must. Adding this extra layer of security can reduce fraudulent payments and will show consumers you are adamant about protecting their sensitive financial information.

Require Users To Create Strong Passwords

Most eCommerce businesses require users to create an account and password before making a purchase. If this is standard practice for your online business, you need to work on improving password security. Protecting your customers will be much easier if they use complex passwords during the account creation process.

The passwords created by your customers should feature a mix of letters, numbers and symbols. You also need to send out automated reminders to change these passwords every few months. By bulking up password security, you can reduce the chances that financial fraud will occur on your website.

Data Encryption is a Must

When using an eCommerce website for the first time, most people will check to see if it has an SSL certificate. This certificate shows consumers that all of the data they transmit over the servers used by an eCommerce website will be encrypted. Not only will this give your customers a sense of security, it will also make it nearly impossible for cybercriminals to intercept and use sensitive financial information.

Routinely Audit Your Online Payment Process

The world of online payment processing is constantly changing. Using outdated software to power your website's payment processing can be disastrous. This is why you need to work with IT professionals to audit and improve your payment processing routinely.