7 Crucial Safety Measures to Consider Before Buying Anything Online

Online shopping is gaining popularity. With fast internet connections and effective mobile devices in place, users are finding it convenient to shop from almost everything from home. It actually saves time, energy and other expenses that are associated with physical shopping. The shopper is also able to compare prices, find lucrative bargains and benefit from the many worthwhile offers that come with online shopping. These benefits that are brought forth by online shopping are what makes users to prefer purchasing online to making physical purchases.

Let’s face it, the online shopping industry has come along from just being a novel concept to becoming one of the most profitable multi-trillion dollar industry we have today. This is proved by the many E-commerce stores that are available today.

The E-commerce stores are reaping big from the online shopping trend. According to a research report published by Statista, the total amount of revenues that E-commerce stores will accrue by the year 2023 is projected $6.5 trillion.

With the increasing popularity of online shopping and with huge amounts of money getting transacted daily, the associated risks attached to online shopping cannot be gainsaid. Hawk-eyed intruders are on the watch tower. They will try and find a loophole that could be used as a trap to scam users and steal from them. As an online shopper, you ought to be overcautious with how you handle yourself, lest you fell into the trap of the hackers. This article has explained some of the measures that you can have in place to ensure that your online shopping process is safe and secure.

1. Do a Thorough Research of the E-commerce Store, Website or Seller

There are actually thousands of E-commerce stores available on the internet today. Although most of the E-commerce stores are legitimate, there are again thousands of them that are just in the business to make malicious gains. You need to know which one is legitimate and which one is a scam. To ascertain this, you are going to carry out a research about the online store. Never rush into purchasing anything until you know who the seller is.

If it is your first time to transact with E-commerce store, then search online for online reviews. Negative reviews can be used as a red flag to warn you against shopping with them. In the case of independent stores, you can still check online for reviews using TrustPilot.

Better still, you can take your time to go through the about page of the E-commerce store. You can also know more about the E-commerce store using Companies House. In the case of companies that offer financial services, you can use the Financial Services Register. Doing this will make it easy for you to understand more about the company. Just make sure that you are confident of the legitimacy of the E-commerce store before going ahead to do your online shopping.

2. Ensure that the Website is Secure

Security of the website is a perfect assurance that your online shopping process is secure. Online shopping websites will require that you share your important payment and card details that will facilitate online payments. The details are usually vital and it is the full responsibility of the website to ensure that the information you share with them is secure. If not, hackers can take full advantage of any loopholes and steal your details and even your money. To ensure that the information is safe, there are security indicators that you should looking for from a website they are highlighted below;

• SSL Certificate- SSL certificates is what will encrypt all your information making it hard for intruders to access. All information transfers between your browser and the website’s servers will be encrypted. To check if the website has an SSL certificate, you will have to check the address bar. Websites with an SSL certificate will have the HTTPS protocol and not HTTP. The S in the HTTPS stands for secure.

• Padlock Symbol- a secure website will have a padlock symbol next to the website address bar.

• Valid Certificate- in an attempt to conform to the HTTPS requirements, some websites will use invalid certificates for the sake of having the SSL feature. To ensure that the certificate on the website is a valid one, then you will have to click on the padlock icon next to the address bar. You will then be able to see all the information about the SSL certificate. There are SSL certificates which are perfect indicators that the website and all the information on it is secure. WildCard SSL certificates is a perfect example. In any case you get a warning about a certificate, then simply avoid the website.

• Green address bar-on some browsers and websites, the address bar may appear as green. This is a perfect indicator that the website is secure.

3. Only Pay Via Trusted Payment Methods

The payment method that the E-commerce store tells you to use speaks volumes about its legitimacy. A perfect red flag will be if the E-commerce store tells you to use suspicious payment method such as writing a cheque or if the E-commerce store asks you wire the funds directly. If this is the case, then it is wise if stopped the transaction and look for another ecommerce store.

A legitimate ecommerce will ask you to use a credit card or a debit make payments. They might also request for the payment from a trusted payment system such as PayPal. Anything less of that, the chances are that the website cannot be trusted and you should not shop for anything from them.

4. Carry out regular device updates

Safety with online shopping starts with you. Making sure that the device you are using to shop online is up to date is essential. Ensure that the phone or the computer you are using to shop online is using the most current operating system. This protects the device from being infected with malware.

Hackers are usually keen to locate loopholes in the operating system and use them to stage an attack. Computers and mobile devices developers are usually on the look out to also try and locate the loopholes. They will then come up with new updates that address these loopholes. Updating your device with the new software and operating system versions will ensure that you are safe from the vulnerabilities that existed in the previous versions. Not updating your system can make your entire system vulnerable to hackers. Hackers can take advantage and tamper with your online shopping process.

5. Use a Secure Internet Connection

Security of your online process also depends on the type of internet connection that you are using. It is highly recommended that you use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) when shopping online. A Virtual Private Network routes your connection from the device you are using to shop online and your network provider to the Virtual Private Network server instead. This simply means that the connection between your device and the VPN server becomes encrypted. This makes it extremely hard for a hacker to access your data.

Using public Wi-Fi when shopping online could also jeopardize the whole thing. The reason is simple. Public Wi-Fi are usually very insecure and are hotspots for hackers and fraudsters who lie in wait. You better use your mobile data and not public Wi-Fi. The risks associated can have devastating repercussions.

6. Use Strong Passwords

Weak passwords can act as the quickest links which a hacker can use to gain access into your online shopping account. According to the 2017 Verizon Data Breach Investigation Report, 80% of hacking related breaches are all as a result of weak passwords.You should keep your passwords strong at all time. A strong password is usually a hard to guess password. It should be a blend of both numbers, letters and symbols. It should also be eight or more characters in length.

You should also store the passwords far away from the reach of hackers. This will make it hard for the hackers to access your online shopping accounts.

7. The Return Policy

Before finally deciding to purchase anything online, you have to go through thee return policy. You should even contact them via email or via phone call to establish how they manage their returns. If the ecommerce store does not have a return policy, then this can be a perfect reason as to why you should not shop anything from it. The business could be a scam.

Conclusion

Online shopping has gained a significant popularity in the recent past. It is a convenient way to purchase goods and services. It saves on the time and energy and involves very minimal movements. However, despite all the advantages that are brought forth by online shopping, there are numerous threats associated with it. Safety is therefore a key concern when shopping online. This article has explained some of the tips that you can put in place to ensure for a safe online shopping.