Copyright © 2009 What The Hell? Security
There’s a belief among CAs (ok, VeriSign) that a merchant can minimize the number of abandoned carts — presumably by promoting them to orders — by introducing trust symbols at checkout. Symbols like the green bar and VeriSign’s logo. Balderdash. Checkout is the last place to do it.
Literally the last place. To be clear, I’m not saying it’s a bad idea. It’s a great idea, if not to convey an often accurate sense of security, then to create more brand impressions. My point is, there are also five earlier opportunities, each of which can add to the ripple:
- Just getting the link rendered (hard to do with email campaigns)
- When deciding whether or not to click
- Upon landing at the site
- While navigating
- While adding items to cart
Personally, I seriously doubt if VeriSign has a comprehensive understanding of the phenom of cart abandonment. Looking at their press releases, it smacks loudly of digging for data to support an admittedly catchy marketing campaign.
Anyway if there’s any truth at all to VeriSign’s claim — I believe there is — then imagine the sheer truthiness of injecting the five additional opportunities I outlined above. CHA-CHING, BABY!
Certified webforms I’ve already written about. As for certified links, more to come.
Filed under: certificate authorities, fraud, security, ssl
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