Payment Security: How to Protect Your Online Store from Fraud Attempts

1. What does payment security mean?
2. Why is payment security so important for online stores?
3. What types of payment security procedures are there?
4. Which payment tools are suitable?
5. Payment security – a must for customer trust

Increasing data breaches are forcing online retailers to upgrade their payment security. And consumers are also well aware of this risk. So if your e-commerce website does not provide the necessary level of security, potential customers look elsewhere. To prevent this, we will show you in this article how you can ensure the security of online transactions and gain the trust of your customers.

What does payment security mean?

Payment security refers to the systems, processes and measures to protect financial transactions against data breaches, unauthorized access and fraud. This refers to both the entire payment process in online stores and brick-and-mortar retail. Ensuring payment security is equally important for online and offline companies in order to maintain customer trust, minimize financial losses, and comply with relevant regulations and industry standards. Payment security is thus an essential aspect of a successful purchase.

Why is payment security so important for online stores?

Data protection: As the operator of an online store, you need to process sensitive data, including account information and credit card information. This requires the highest level of data protection. After all, your customers need to be able to rely on their data being safe with you and being handled confidentially. If there is a breach of data protection, this also affects customer trust and consequently the company's reputation.

Protection against scams: You need to ensure that your customers and your online store are safe from fraudulent actions. Credit card fraud, identity theft and phishing attacks are common in the e-commerce sector. Stable payment security can help prevent such incidents and the financial losses associated with them.

Trust of the customers: When choosing an online store, payment security plays a decisive role for customers. When customers know that their data is in good hands with you and they can rely on a smooth payment process, this greatly increases their trust - and thus the likelihood that they will buy from you again and recommend you.

Competitiveness: As mentioned before, payment security is a decision criterion for potential customers in the highly competitive e-commerce sector. In order to stay competitive, you need to keep this in mind constantly and rely on advanced security solutions.

Compliance with regulations: Only if your online store operates legally, and meets certain security standards, you are allowed to accept payments from customers. This includes, for example, following the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), which was developed by well-known credit institutions. By investing in the payment security of your store and meeting all requirements, you can avoid potential sanctions.

What types of payment security procedures are there?

SSL Certificates

Session hijacking is when a customer's session on an e-commerce website is hacked. To minimize this risk, it's worth installing a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate. This is especially true in cases where users have to enter their login information or personal information. The SSL certificate not only results in a padlock icon in the browser, which makes your website appear more trustworthy. It also performs a critical security function by creating an encrypted channel between the server and the customer's browser, protecting the data entered.

Set up PCI Compliance

For credit card payments, complying with the PCI Security Standards Council is essential. The standard includes 12 core requirements and over 400 testing procedures to ensure the protection of personal data at all levels. Compliance varies from hardware security to your hosting provider and ultimately your software. So if you've invested in expensive software and passed the security checks, this might not be enough if your server isn't secure.

3-D Secure

3-D Secure is an additional layer of security where three domains are used for each transaction. These three areas are: a bank, the technology that processes the transaction, and the issuing bank. The system helps to reduce the number of fraud attempts, but it is relatively slow and comes with a tedious automation process.

Tokenization

Tokenization is the process where sensitive payment information is immediately replaced by a randomly generated string of characters. This string of characters, also known as a token, must be associated with a specific customer to work properly. For this purpose, there is a public and a private key. Tokenization reduces the risk of data misuse as it is almost impossible to fake the private key.

AVS (Address Verification Service)

AVS or Address Verification Service is a security measure where the billing address provided by the cardholder is verified. If the information is correct, the merchant receives a positive message allowing them to continue with the billing process. If the details are incorrect, the merchant is notified that the payment has failed.

Fraud detection software

There are special fraud screening tools on the market that can help you identify potential fraud cases. Modern tools use machine learning and AI-based algorithms to identify security risks. However, since these programs are not infallible, it is recommended to combine them with another payment security measure to guarantee maximum security.

Practical example of payment security using 3-D Secure

A customer selects the credit card as the payment type in an e-commerce store. In this case, he/she is automatically redirected to his/her bank's 3-D Secure system at the end of the purchase. Here, the customer now enters a personal password or a one-time pin that he/she previously received via email or SMS and thus confirms his/her identity. The transaction can only be completed via successful authentication. The buyer is then redirected back to the online store, where he/she now sees a purchase confirmation.

Which payment tools are suitable?

To guarantee high payment security, you should only use reputable and secure payment service providers. Below you will find an overview of the best payment providers:

PayPal

Pleo

Klarna

Apple Pay

Pliant

Amazon Pay

Google Pay

elopage

Payment security – a must for customer trust

Payment security is about protecting sensitive data during a payment process. In particular, the number of data thefts in online trade is constantly increasing. In a study by the information service provider CRIF 94% of the surveyed online retailers stated that they had already experienced attempted fraud. The use of certain procedures, such as SSL encryption, 3-D Secure and tokenization, is therefore a must for online stores if they want to remain competitive. Because high payment security goes hand in hand with increased customer trust but also a reduced risk of fraud.