Taking advantage of the best ecommerce platform – like those provided by Yahoo Small Business – is a great way to get your online business off to a strong start. But if you really want to win your customers’ hearts and minds, tell them how you’ll keep their data secure too. You’re going to be asking people to disclose financial information, after all. So, crafting your ecommerce privacy policy to demonstrate your dedication to protection is the smartest thing you can do for building consumer trust.
Here’s how to build an ecommerce privacy policy.
Respect and Safeguard Privacy
There are a few ways to respect consumer privacy and safeguard digital information:
- Promise to protect their disclosures against fraud and misappropriation.
- Respect their preferences regarding the use of their information and limit your data collection solely to what is absolutely required to conduct business.
- Be completely forthcoming about what information you collect and with whom it will be shared.
- Let them know how mistakes will be corrected, how their data is secured and how policy changes will be communicated.
- Finally, you should apprise users of the means available to them to present any concerns they may have.
Securing Their Data
If you’re asking for credit card information, bank account numbers or Social Security numbers (which you shouldn’t need at all), it is your responsibility to ensure storage and transmission of this data in the most secure manner possible.
About Emails…
In many cases, customers will opt-in to email communications without realizing they’ve done so. When they ask to unsubscribe, you’re required by law to enable them to do so. You can save yourself a lot of trouble if you make email opt-out options readily visible. This also establishes you as someone who can be counted upon to conduct business in an above-board fashion.
Too many sites make the opt-out process incredibly difficult or even invisible, as if that will discourage irritated people from doing so. Meanwhile, this irritates them even more. If you’re conducting business with good intentions, there’s no reason to hide your opt-out button. In fact, making it plainly visible says you’re someone who can be trusted.
Protecting Children
If your site appeals to children younger than 13 in any way, you must comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Acknowledging this in your privacy policy will go a long way toward helping parents feel good about your intentions toward their families.
Honor Their Preferences
Strict adherence to your privacy policy is paramount if you want to retain customer confidence. While not doing so isn’t always a violation of the law per se, you can expect the Federal Trade Commission to come calling in certain cases if you do not.
Making every effort to keep your customers safe and happy is the best way to build a strong and loyal following. Crafting your ecommerce privacy policy along these lines—on one of the best ecommerce platforms available—will get your store off to a great start.
Looking to start your own ecommerce site? Check out what Yahoo Small Business has to offer.
