Seals are now a mainstay of the ecommerce world. Customers are accustomed to seeing seals at the bottom of the shopping cart pages. The seals themselves are turning into brands, telling customers how secure a web site is, rating the site’s customer service level, guaranteeing privacy protection, and ensuring that there are safeguards in place to protect the customer’s financial data.

 

These seals are meant to reassure the customer that their information is private, the site is hack proof, and the company will not sell personal information to marketing or email campaign companies. They heighten the customer’s shopping experience, and encourage them to make a purchase.

 

However, seals also make it difficult for shoppers to differentiate between the big online e-tailers and the small businesses. They level the playing field, and can increase sales.

 

Support services that offer easy to recognize seals may charge higher fees, but the cost is often absorbed by the increased number of sales. The third party service can also lend their credibility to the shopping cart, by the mere addition of the seal.

 

The minimum a shopping cart needs is a SSL certificate. This proves to customers that the site is hack proof, and the financial data is encrypted. The customer’s see this seal as proof the ecommerce site is legitimate, not a phishing site, or data collection scheme.

 

Seals are growing so valuable that industry associations now offer seals to their members. These seals imply that the company is knowledgeable, held accountable by a governing body, and adheres to a specific set of rules and regulations.

 

Even a seal from a PPC service can boost customer confidence and allude to the shopping carts legitimacy. These seals let customers post reviews on the shopping site or product.  In many cases, these reviews are the only testimonials which most online shoppers consider truthful or valid, even though these seals are given way to anyone who signs up with the PPC campaign.

 

The real purpose for seals is to increase customer confidence and indirectly increase sales. To do this, the seals must be visible on every page – even those outside of the shopping cart or payment gateway.

 

It is necessary to add a separate web page that explains the seal for consumers that are new to online shopping. Some of the seals may be so overused they are invisible to the ecommerce industry. But, only one quarter of the modern world are currently on the net. This number is growing by millions each year, millions of new shoppers who may still believe that talking to a telephone operator the only secure way to make a purchase.  These people may see a product online, but without being educated, they will return to mail order or phone ordering to make their purchase.  

 

The one advantage of seals over text is that they transcend culture and economy. They are recognisable the world over, where a text message may be corrupted by the automatic translating software.