Credit Card Processing Customer Trust

Question

I have just finished a new Magento website which includes online credit card payments, all the processing is done during the checkout so there is no redirect to a payment gateway etc.

I have install a business Validated SSL certificate, however I still find customers are dropping off just before paying. My question is, what do you do to make your clients feel secure on the checkout page?

Answer 1

• Are you sure that the "trust" is bound to SSL certification here and not just to fact that checkout might be confusing and your clients only go to the checkout to get to know/see the full price with shipping and taxes?

• You have installed the certificate but have you checked if everything on checkout page is over ssl and you don't get the security warnings etc?

• Adding a inline CC processing method requires your organisation/site to be PCI compliant as well, are those steps met.

• inline might be cool from developer point of view but using trusted payment methods like paypal, authorize.net etc might be better solution as those have built the trust around the world already

Answer 2

Customers dropping off just before paying is a fairly common behaviour on a lot of ecommerce sites.

It could well be that they are dropping off just before paying for many reasons other than your SSL certificate, or the in-line payment.

Often users browse to the checkout screen to see the absolute final totals including shipping and taxes for the order. They're still window shopping, they haven't yet committed to the checkout. Pulling these totals back on to your cart page can be helpful for the overall user experience.

But in answer to your specific question:

• Is your physical bricks and mortar address on the site?
• Do you show the SSL security logo or a lock or something of the like?
• Sometimes you can over do it with logos as well, looks like you've something to hide, you need to strike a balance.
• Is your refund and exchange policy clearly stated?
• If you've captured the user's cart contents and email address you can tastefully offer a discount to abandoned cart users
• Have you surveyed your competition, what do they show on their checkout pages?

Cart abandonment is very normal in ecommerce. Improving your conversion rate is often a matter of good old trial and error.