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The Connection Q3 2005 - Trusted Business News
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The
holiday season is rapidly approaching, and expectations are high, as
last year showed stunning returns. In this issue of the Connection,
we take a look
back at the 2004 season and a look
ahead to analysts’ predictions for 2005. We also provide
tips on preparing
your online store, and recent news on browsers
and online-security
technology.
The
Holiday Market: A Look Back, A Look Ahead
Preparing
for the Holidays
Microsoft
Readying Internet Explorer 7.0
Keep Your Server
Up-To-Date
The Holiday Market: A Look
Back, A Look Ahead
2004: A Look
Back
As the 2005 holiday
season approaches, expectations are high and predictions are strong.
But if we look back at 2004, it’s easy to see why: 2004 was a record
year for holiday commerce, showing exceptional growth and stunning returns.
According to a comScore
Networks report, online retail spending grew 29 percent compared to
the 2003 season, and online travel grew 26 percent, adding up to record
sales of over $23 billion. Amazon.com reported its busiest holiday season
ever and set a single-day record of more than 2.8 million items ordered.
The most striking development was a surge in activity in the last two
weeks of December, with sales growing by 57 and 53 percent, respectively,
which suggests that online retailers have developed better techniques,
including better forecasting, free shipping, and last-minute discounts,
to accommodate traditional holiday season purchasing behavior.
Overall, 2004 marked
a remarkably productive holiday season for online retailers, suggesting
both growing consumer confidence in online shopping, and a growing savvy
among online retailers for the best way to market their offerings.
2005:
A Look Forward
Analysts are predicting
an even stronger holiday season for 2005. A recent study
by WebTrends shows that 43 percent of online retailers expect the holiday
season to account for 25-50 percent of their annual revenue. The discounted
shipping and value-added promotions that drew consumers last holiday
season are growing more common, and the vast majority of retailers plan
to implement at least four new on-site features, showing the unique
strengths of the Internet as a shopping medium. In addition, marketing
company DoubleClick’s latest holiday shopping report shows that nearly
a third of all retailers plan on shifting at least 15 percent of their
holiday budget to ecommerce (Download
the complete DoubleClick report in PDF format).
Ten years ago, e-commerce
was a mere possibility. Now, with the record-breaking sales of 2004
and the even greater promise of 2005, secure online commerce has become
a vital part of the retail industry.
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Preparing for
the Holidays
In just a few weeks,
the holiday season will be upon us, and your online store will be packed
with visitors, eager to browse and purchase. The checklist below can
help you make sure that your store will capitalize on the business.
- Is Your Site Protected with SSL? VeriSign provides services
to secure small, medium, and large Web stores with SSL Certificates
that help ensure strong security.
- Is All Content Up-To-Date? Nothing says “unprofessional” like
outdated content. Be sure to update your store for the holidays with
current content.
- Can Your Site Handle Heavy Traffic? Check your server statistics,
and check with your hosting service, if you use one. If you receive
a larger number of visitors than you expect, will your site be able
to keep up?
- Do You Offer a Holiday Promotion? Free shipping incentives
and value-added promotions are a great way to increase holiday business.
Be sure to put them up soon, so that your promotion has time to circulate
the Internet before the holidays begin.
- Does Your Web Site Offer the Strongest Possible Security Available?
VeriSign offers certificates enabled with Server-Gated Cryptography
(SGC), which allows retailers to ensure that, regardless of the visitor’s
operating system or browser version, they are being protected with the
highest level of encryption available to them.
- Is Your SSL Certificate Up-To-Date? Visitors will quickly move
on if they get a pop-up telling them that your certificate is out of
date.
- Do You Have a Clear Policy on Advertising? Spam and spyware
have become a serious public concern. Assure your consumer that they
are safe from such activities.
- Are Customers Aware of Your Security Features? Many consumers
now choose online stores based on their perceived security level. If
you have any kind of advanced security feature, promote it!
- Is Your Presentation Clear and Functional? Even something as
simple as a broken graphic can shatter visitor trust. Double-check your
site to make sure that all elements are working properly.
- Do You Display the VeriSign Secured™ Seal? If you use a VeriSign
SSL Certificate, post your free VeriSign Secured Seal to boost your
customers’ confidence. The VeriSign Seal is the most widely recognized
trust marks on the Internet (TNS study, April 2005).
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Microsoft
Readying Internet Explorer 7.0
Keeping up with
competition such as Mozilla Firefox and AOL’s recent release of Netscape
8.0, Microsoft has been working diligently on its upcoming release of
the Internet Explorer 7.0 browser. In July, Microsoft released the first
beta of the browser for technical evaluation, feedback, and testing
by software and Web site developers, and revealed many improved security
features. A key part of Microsoft’s strategy for IE7 is enabling pro-active
security, steering users away from dangerous Web sites and implementing
dynamic features that will protect user information, such as a “Protected
Mode” that actively prevents malware from installing itself on a user’s
system.
The padlock symbol
for Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) sessions, for example, will now enjoy
a prominent placement to the right of the address bar. The padlock symbol
assures users that the secure transaction they are engaged in is indeed
encrypted. Clicking on the padlock reveals user-friendly information
on the legitimacy of the Web site and the issuer of the SSL Certificate.
Web sites without the proper SSL Certificates will show up with a dimmed
address bar in red background along with a warning insignia. As certificate
issuer information gets more accessible to users, it will be easier
for users to discriminate among e-commerce sites based on their SSL
Certificates and other security services.
One of the most
impressive new security features is a dynamic Phishing Filter that promises
to actively combat the growing phishing epidemic. Phishing is a particularly
malicious identity scam that works by tricking users into thinking they
are giving their sensitive data to a trusted retail or financial institution.
The IE7 Phishing Filter will not only steer users away from known fraudulent
sites, but also warn them of suspicious ones. Microsoft recognizes that
legitimate sites could be mistakenly identified as suspicious, and it
will provide site owners a way to report such mistakes. To continuously
improve its accuracy in gauging a site’s legitimacy, Microsoft works
closely with industry leaders such as the Anti-Phishing Working Group,
VeriSign, and Digital PhishNet.
The company also
advises Web site owners to implement security best practices, including
using an SSL Certificate from a trusted authority, maintaining up-to-date
firewalls, and protecting against cross-site scripting attacks.
As e-commerce expands,
combating identity crime is a vital step towards securing customer confidence.
The new features of IE7 promise to make a major contribution toward
building a safe and secure e-commerce environment.
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Keep Your Server Up-To-Date
If you run your
own online store, then you’re probably familiar with the Secure Sockets
Layer (SSL) protocol, which provides security by encrypting data in
transmission. But did you know which version of SSL your server is running?
If you have recently set up shop, you are most likely running SSL 3.0
(or Transaction Layer Security (TLS) 1.0, which provides the same functions
as SSL, and is slowly replacing it). However, you might want to be sure
of your version; Mozilla has announced that soon the popular Firefox
browser will no longer support SSL 2.0.
This means that
if your server supports only SSL 2.0, and a visitor lands on your site
via Firefox, they will either get an error message that they are unable
to connect with your site, or they will suffer an endless wait while
the page fails to load. Both experiences will surely send potential
shoppers elsewhere. Note that even if your digital certificate supports
all available SSL and TLS versions, as do all VeriSign SSL Certificates,
the client browser determines which encryption algorithm it ultimately
uses.
In all likelihood,
it is only a matter of time before all browsers drop support for SSL
2.0, so if your server software supports only SSL 2.0, it pays to upgrade
as soon as possible.
For more information
about the SSL and TLS protocols, please visit the VeriSign
SSL Information Center.
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