HOW TO PREPARE

SHOPPING SEASON 2014

HOW TO PREPARE
SHOPPING SEASON 2014
For the Christmas
For the Christmas For the Christmas
Christmas is coming, the gooe is getting fat;
Dont give hackers a welcome mat
With just 7 percent
1
of people still doing all their Christmas
shopping in bricks and mortar stores, retailers of every kind
need to get their e-commerce experience in gear. Whether its
e-shopping, click and collect, or even browsing and wish lists
customers are offering you a bumper delivery of data and
sales this Christmas. But fail to keep your customers safe with
good website security, and all youll get is a lump of coal.
1
Christmas 2013 Online Shopping Survey Report - Econsultancy February 2014.
Its the mot wonderfl time of the year
How to prepare for the online shopping season 2014 3
2013 was the year in which online sales
wagged the entire retailing dog, in a
revolution that is permanent,
says Robert Peston, business editor for BBC News.
Christmas is a joyous season and an especially
profitable one for retailers. Of course, for customers,
Christmas shopping can take the shine out of the tinsel
as streets get crowded and queues lengthen.
Thats why, in recent years, more and more people
have been turning to online shopping. In fact, last year
there was a 19.2 percent growth in internet purchases
1

compared with Christmas 2012, the fastest increase in
four years.
Your biggest boom days are closer than you think, and
you need to get ready now: you need to show customers
that you can keep their data safe and your website
malware-free.
Last Christmas
Christmas 2013 smashed all sorts of ecommerce records
as new peak shopping days emerged and confidence in
e-commerce and delivery reached new heights:
Cyber Monday led the charge for online pre-
Christmas sales in 2013. Retailers saw Cyber Monday
(the first Monday in December) sales increase 31.6
percent
2
compared to the same Monday a year earlier.
Black Friday finally hit UK shores. Traditionally a
peak shopping day in the US, black Friday follows the
Thanksgiving holiday at the end of November, and is
so named because its traditionally when retailers start
making a profit, or move into the black. John Lewis
was one of the first British retailers to offer special
promotions for Black Friday (29 November). It turned
out to be their biggest ever day for online orders.
3
Boxing day exceeded expectations. Boxing Day 2013
was the biggest and busiest day ever for online retailers
in the UK, according to Experian Hitwise. In fact, the IBM
Digital Analytics Benchmark
4
reveals that online sales
increased by 40.4 percent compared to Boxing
Day 2012.
The online boom lasts longer than ever. Customers
have come to feel increasingly confident in timely
delivery of online orders, meaning ecommerce sales
continue to peak right into the final week before the big
day. 22 December was Sainsburys biggest-ever day for
internet sales
5
and the final pre-Christmas week (ending
21 December) broke the 160m barrier
3
for the first
time at John Lewis.
1
BBC News, 10 January 2014
2
IBMs Fourth Annual UK Online Retail Christmas Readiness Report
3
John Lewis Christmas trading statement - Thursday 2 January 2014
4
IBM Holiday Benchmark Report - January 10 2014
5
BBC News 8 January 2014
10
ONE
iPad
SOLD EVERY
SECONDS
4
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
How to prepare for the online shopping season 2014 4
The trends are set and the potential is there for you to
smash your own conversion rates this Christmas.

John Lewis sold one iPad every 10 seconds
1
in the run
up to Christmas: imagine the profits you could make
selling at such a rate.
John Lewis can actually teach you a few important tips
when it comes to ecommerce. Yes, it helps theyre a
household name, but that doesnt mean they havent
invested heavily in their online shopping experience.
The best performing store chains, Next, John Lewis and
House of Fraser, are those with huge and efficient online
presences, explains Robert Peston
2
. Take a look at the
John Lewis site
3
and youll see they also offer security
tips and reassurance with SSL encryption for
all transactions.
Security, efficiency, availability and tailoring to
Christmas shoppers needs have to be your focus if you
want to have yourself a merry little Christmas this year.
1
The Observer, Ten things Christmas taught us about the UK retail revolution,
12 January 2014
2
BBC News, 10 January 2014
3
www.johnlewis.com
4
The Guardian, 10 Things Christmas Taught Us About UK Retail, January 2014
In the bleak mid-winter:
understand what your customers fear
How to prepare for the online shopping season 2014 5
People might be happy that they dont have to traipse
out in the snow (or more accurately for England, the
freezing rain), but online shopping doesnt remove all
the trials and tribulations of Christmas shopping.
With so many people going online, hackers and online
criminals will also be upping their efforts to get a slice
of the Christmas-revenue cake. Online shoppers are
already pretty savvy about this, and those that arent are
bombarded with messages from all fronts about how to
stay safe and what to look for when deciding whether or
not to trust a website
WARNING MESSAGE
Youre at risk from identity theft
especially if you give away details like
address, date of birth or credit card details
WARNING MESSAGE
Look for trust marks to prove the
company youre buying from is
legitimate
WARNING MESSAGE
Look for signs that your session is
encrypted, like https in the address
bar or a padlock symbol
WARNING MESSAGE
Go direct to sites, dont trust
social media messages or emails
that sound too good to be true
WARNING MESSAGE
Never reply to an email with
personal details
WARNING MESSAGE
Make sure youve got good security
software on your device to avoid
getting viruses
SSL certificates are a no-brainer for encrypting information in transit between
devices, sites and servers, but ideally you want Extended Validation, which
turns address bars green to prove youve also been through a rigorous
business identity check so people are sure who theyre giving their details to.
The Norton Secured Seal is the most trusted mark on the internet
4
. People are
going to be on the look out for proof that their purchase is safe so place your
trust mark somewhere obvious and always display it on the checkout screen.
Rather than just securing payment pages, protect your customers shopping habits
and other data too. Always-On SSL means that every page on your site is encrypted,
not just checkout pages. It ensures every interaction a customer has with your site
is protected great if you want to encourage product reviews and other social
interaction.
Be sure to keep your social media accounts secure, with strong passwords and
limited access. And be sure to make your website clear so people can find it on their
own if they dont want to click your link.
Help customers distinguish between you and an imposter by telling people what
you will and wont contact them about when you ask for their email address.
77 percent of legitimate websites have exploitable vulnerabilities, according to
Symantec research
5
. Your website could be the unwitting distributor of malware if
you dont regularly scan and update your web servers and website software.
Do they know its Christmas
6
Newspaper
1
articles, security experts
2
and law enforcement
3
alike all join forces in the festive season to warn online
shoppers about the risks they face. As a website owner, you need to know what customers are thinking and being
told about online shopping so that you can effectively counter their concerns with the right security precautions.
1
The Observer News - Four million Britons have fallen
victim to identity fraud. Are you next? 9 Dec 2007
2
Andrew Horbury - Symantec WSS, Nov 2013
3
Top Christmas Shopping Tips - GetSafeOnline.org
4
Symantec International Online Consumer
Research: US, Germany, UK July 2012
5
2014 Internet Security Threat Report, Vol 19
up to 91% of people
will not click through
a malware or phishing
warning
in Mozilla Firefox at least
two thirds of users will
not click through an SSL
warning of any kind
White Christmas
Even without all those warnings, people are still
very wary of any sign that your website might be
compromised. If any of your SSL certificates are expired,
or if Google discovers malware hidden on your site by
hackers, then visitors are going to see warning signs.
And warning signs mean you can kiss your Christmas
bonus goodbye.
The University of California, together with Google,
undertook a study
1
to track real-world click-through
rates from real browser security warnings in Google
Chrome and Mozilla: two of the most popular web
browsers.
They found that between 77 and 91 percent of people
will not click through a malware or phishing warning,
and in Mozilla Firefox at least two thirds of users will not
click through an SSL warning of any kind.
Make sure your Christmas is white by staying
off search engine blacklists. Get your website in
order now and ensure all your SSL certificates are
up to date, and that your site has been scanned
for vulnerabilities and malware. To help you out,
Symantec SSL certificates come with regular website
scanning as standard and premium certificates come
with a free vulnerability assessment.
How to prepare for the online shopping season 2014 7
1
Symantec, How customers really react to web browser security warnings,
7th February 2014
Winter Wonderland:
getting to know your customers
How to prepare for the online shopping season 2014 8
Website security isnt a standalone activity: it ties
in with your marketing you attract visitors and drive
conversions.
Knowing what customers are wary of and adding a
few SSL certificates isnt enough if you want to make
the most of the 2014 festive shopping season. You also
need to know how they shop and what they want.
I believe in Father Christmas

Little children believe in Santa: hes the big jolly fellow,
in the red suit, who brings the presents. And he never
lets anyone down.
You have to create that same faith in your grown-up
customers if you want to win their website custom.
Engendering trust
2
is a vital part of the marketing and
sales cycle and your website security can help.
Trust logos and seal-in-search are great first steps. If
a customer uses Norton security on their device, for
example, Seal-in-Search displays the Norton Secured
Seal next to your website when you come up in a Google
search. This lets the customer know, without even
having to risk a click, that you offer a safe website and
that your identity as a business has been verified by
Symantec.
You should also use Extended Validation SSL certificates.
These require you to complete a more extensive set of
questions about your business, which are then verified
by a certificate authority (like Symantec).
As a sign that youve been through this process and
implemented EV certificates, a visitors address bar
will then turn green when they arrive on your site.
This little signal of credibility matters: the SSL EV
green bar increases the feeling of security for 60
percent of shoppers, according to a Symantec
Online Consumer Study.
The SSL EV green bar increases the feeling of security for 60% of shoppers
1
1
Symantec Online Customer Study (UK, France, Germany, Benelux, US and
Australia) conducted in January 2011
2
Bad Language - Apple, Google and you: How to create a distintive tone of
voice for yoru startup.
How to prepare for the online shopping season 2014 9
O come all ye faithfl
Trust doesnt just lure people in: it drives up conversions
and can even increase revenue per customer (RPV).
Trust logos are available once you have an SSL
certificate from a particular certificate authority. So, if
you have a Symantec SSL certificate, you can display the
Norton Secured Seal.
Were obviously going to advocate the Norton Secured
Seal, but you dont just have to take our word for it that
its the best: its been shown by third-party studies
1
to
be the most recognisable trust logo on the internet. That
matters. US Cutter
2
, for example, saw an 11 percent
increase in RPV for all traffic with the addition of the
Norton Secured Seal.
Having a trust logo is great, but which logo you use
and where you place it matter too. Conversion Voodoo
3

have found that by placing the trust logo next to the
most critical or sensitive fields in a form outperforms
placement anywhere else. Its worth running A/B tests
now to maximise the effect of your trust logo, before the
Christmas rush starts.
Twas the night before Christmas,
when all through the house;
Not a creature was stirring,
not even a mouse
Thats probably because so many people now use
tablets and smartphones for their online shopping.
Not only did 2013 see a big rise in online Christmas
shopping, it also revealed some new trends about how
people are doing that shopping:
Mobile devices. Sales over mobile devices reached a
new high of 37.2 percent
4
of all site sales in the UK in
December 2013; thats up more than four-fold from
December 2011. This in turn makes average site visits
shorter as they nip in and out on their phone, leaving
you even less time to make an impression.
Personalisation. Online retailers missed out on
1.5bn during the 2013 Christmas shopping period
because they failed to focus on the customer journey,
according to Qubit
5
. Knowing their journey lets you
target the right messages (like delivery guarantees) at
the right time (like the week before Christmas).
Click and collect. This Christmas weve seen
innovative retailers using click and collect and other
approaches to make a virtue of both their website
and their physical shops. And thats something we
see growing in importance, says the British Retail
Consortiums director general
6
, Helen Dickinson.
The interaction between online and physical stores
is becoming ever more entwined
7
, meaning websites
need to offer customers more choice and flexibility.
1
Baymard, Which Site Seal do People Trust the Most? (2013 Survey Results), Jan 2013
2
CPC Strategy Blog January 2014
3
ConversionVoodoo, Proper placement of your trust logos will improve your
conversion rate.
4
IBM Fourth Annual UK Online Retail Christmas Readiness Report
5
The Drum.com 25 July 2014
6
BBC News 10 January 2014
7
The Guardian, Tuesday 5 August 2014
How to prepare for the online shopping season 2014 10
All I want for Christmas is you
All of these trends require you to gather more information
about your customers and how they behave. Modern
marketing software
1
allows you to track visitors and
where theyve come from, helping you, for example,
pinpoint abandonment areas on your site and better tailor
your offers and information.
Targeted content and automated inbound marketing
2
is
becoming the new norm. More than half of consumers
said they expect retailers to use purchasing and
behavioral data to offer relevant promotions, according
to the IBM Fourth Annual UK Online Retail Christmas
Readiness Report
3
.
Robust, multi-layered website security is essential
here too. As you gather more customer data and build
up a more personal picture of an individuals habits,
you create a honey-pot for cyber criminals. Extended
Validation helps by reassuring customers that theyre
sharing their personal preferences with a genuine,
trustworthy business.
In addition, Always-On SSL will encrypt every
interaction a customer has with your site, preventing
criminals from eavesdropping on the kind of stat they
could use in a social engineering or targeted scam.
Always-On SSL is set to become the new standard for
trustworthy websites and Google recently announced
4

that switching to an https website will actually
improve your search engine ranking.
1
www.badlanguage.net, 5 Essential Marketing Metrics
2
www.badlanguage.net, The Business Case For Content Marketing
3
IBM, Fourth Annual UK Online Retail Christmas Readiness Report
4
Google Webmaster Central Blog 6 August 2014
Of the top ten, most
frequently exploited
websites in 2013,
shopping sites came
in at number six
How to prepare for the online shopping season 2014 11
Te Grinch: how the criminals try to steal Christmas
The warnings that customers receive arent exaggerated.
They are at risk of fraud, identity theft, scams and
malicious code hiding on legitimate websites.
Just consider these stats from Symantecs 2014 Internet
Threat Security Report
1
and ask yourself how easy
youre making it for criminals to take advantage of your
business:
Over two-thirds of websites used to distribute
malware were identified as legitimate,
compromised websites

One in eight of all websites have critical
vulnerabilities that could allow attackers to
access sensitive data, alter the websites content
or compromise visitors computers

Of the top ten, most frequently exploited websites
in 2013, shopping sites came in at number six
And that doesnt even begin to touch on the threat of
watering hole attacks, where criminals infect specific
legitimate websites in order to target specific visitors,
or the high cost of data breaches that a compromised
web server can leave you open to.
1
Symantec 2014 Internet Threat Security Report
How to prepare for the online shopping season 2014 12
Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Website security is something you should never put
off, but for the most profitable season of the year, its
essential you get a head start.

You might think Christmas is a million miles away, but
Selfridges
1
have already opened their Christmas store
and 2.7 million Christmas-related searches
2
were made
on eBay in August 2013.
So, act now:
Make sure all your SSL certificates are up to date

If you havent already, upgrade to Extended
Validation SSL, which turns a visitors address
bar green and improves your credibility

Consider Always-On SSL to encrypt your customers
entire journey on your site

Conduct a vulnerability assessment and daily
website malware scanning to help protect your
site from hackers
Start testing and optimising the placement of your
trust logos

Explain your security policy clearly and prominently
and reassure customers that you have their
interests, not just their credit cards, in mind
And finally, be sure to pick a security partner who has
the experience and resources to keep your customers,
your site and your business truly safe. As of
September 2013, over half of websites using Extended
Validation SSL chose the Symantec brands and our
robust PKI infrastructure includes military-grade data
centres and disaster recovery sites.
Just think of Symantec as a workshop of security-
focused elves, who are working tirelessly to defeat the
Grinch and help you have the best Christmas ever.
1
Daily Mail, 4 August 2014
2
www.thedrum.com, 26 July 1014
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How to prepare for the online shopping season 2014
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