Credit Card Processing Blog

The more comfortable visitors to your website feel about the way you manage their personal information, the bigger the chance of them becoming your customers. To avoid possible misunderstandings and to assure consumers that you are doing your best to protect the personal information they provide on your website, your privacy policy and information security procedures should incorporate the best practices listed below.

1. Privacy Policy
   • Devise a clear, concise statement of your privacy policy. This practice, as well as the following one, may be subject to legal requirements and you need to ensure that you are in compliance. Even if there are no legal considerations to keep in mind, however, you will still need to adequately address consumer concerns about providing personal information. To do that, your privacy policy should answer the following questions:
     • What customer information is collected.
     • With whom the information is shared.
     • How customers can opt out.
   • Make your privacy statement easily available to visitors to your website through links on your website. Your customers should be able to quickly locate your privacy statement. Consider placing a link to your policy into your website’s header or footer which, in most cases, will make it accessible from every page of your website.
   • Register with a privacy organization and post a “seal of approval” on your website. Many new visitors to your website will want to check your customer service record and typically that involves searching for customer reviews online and checking out your profile with the Better Business Bureau. You should facilitate the due diligence process by providing a “seal of approval” from a major privacy program and assure consumers that you are serious about protecting their personal information and are taking the necessary measures to do so. In addition to the Better Business Bureau’s BBBOnLine Privacy, you can look at programs such as TRUSTe.
2. Information Security
   • Detail your website’s information security practices and controls in a separate page of your website and make it available to everyone. In particular:
     • Explain how card information is protected:
       • During transmission
       • While on your server, and
       • At your physical site
     • Place a link to your information security page in the header or footer of your website.
   • Provide visitors to your website with information on how they can protect themselves when shopping online. For example you can create a list of “7 tips for a safe online shopping” (which you can also use in your information security disclosure) that includes the following suggestions:
     • Secure your PC by keeping your operating system and browsers updated and use a good and up-to-date security program.
     • Do not click on links in promotional emails, but enter the URLs manually instead.
     • Get to know the merchant before you make a purchase. Look for customer reviews and seller ratings on websites such as Eopinions.com.
     • Pay by credit card to get the additional protection against fraud that most credit cards provide. Federal law limits cardholder liability for misuse of a credit card to $50 but many credit card companies will waive that limit.
     • Make sure you know what the actual price of your purchase is, including cost of the item, shipping, handling, and sales tax.
     • Read the privacy policy to understand what information the merchant is gathering, how it is using it, and whether you can opt out of it.
     • Understand the return and refund policies. These policies can vary significantly from merchant to merchant. Some stores have adopted a “no questions asked” approach, while others make it more difficult for consumers to return products.
   • If you are using Verified by Visa or MasterCard SecureCode, you should display their logos on your home page, security information pages, order and checkout pages.
   • Do not use email for transactions and advise customers against using it. Email is in most cases an unsecured way of transmitting information. You should strongly recommend to your customers that they do not send any sensitive information to you via email. You can communicate these warnings in both automated email responses to customer inquiries and regular email exchanges.

Your e-commerce website should clearly communicate to visitors where you stand on consumer privacy and what you do to protect personal information, how billing and shipping will be handled, and what your return and refund policies are. The more customers know about your business practices, the better. Implement the following features and content into your website and you will see less customer disputes and will reduce the number of chargebacks.

1. Full description of products and services. The importance of accurately describing the product that you are selling or the service that you are offering cannot be overstated. Different customers are looking for different features in a product and are evaluating the quality of a service based on criteria that you might not even consider. Provide as much information as possible, even if it looks redundant or needless. Use product images, if possible.
2. Telephone number and email address. Customers often have questions regarding their purchases. Providing an easy way to contact you is key to minimizing customer disputes and chargebacks.
   • Provide an easy-to-locate email contact option on your home page. For better results, offer customers separate email addresses for different inquiries (product, shipping, billing, return, etc.).
   • Send auto-respond emails to customers to acknowledge receipt of their inquiries and to inform them when they should expect their questions to be answered. Make sure that you respond within the promised time frame.
   • Display your customer service’s phone number on your home page. You should offer a toll-free number in addition to a local one. Email communication may very well be sufficient for many consumers, but not having a phone number to call is a leading cause for customer dissatisfaction and chargebacks. Consumers often need immediate attention and, if not provided, are likely to contact their card issuer and file a dispute.
3. Return, refund and cancellation policies. These policies should be carefully designed to demonstrate your commitment to customer satisfaction.
   • Your return, refund and cancellation policies must be made available to consumers through a link on your website’s home page.
   • Customers must agree to the terms of these policies during the order process. Have your customers click on an “Accept” or “Agree” button to confirm acceptance of the policies before submitting their payment information. Then, once the order has been submitted, send your policy to the customers with the order confirmation email.
4. Recurring transactions. Recurring transactions are one of the major sources of customer disputes and chargebacks and I have written about them at greater length here. You should require customers to click on an “Accept” or a similar button to acknowledge acceptance of the recurring payment plan agreement.
5. Product delivery policy. Include the delivery time frame and any restrictions that you might have on delivering your products. If there is a change in the delivery date, especially if it is going to be late, immediately notify your customer.
6. Shipping policy. Your shipping policy must be available to customers through a link on your home page and. With your shipping policy you should:
   • Explain shipping options and expected delivery.
   • Provide full disclosure of all shipping and handling charges.
   • Develop an email response system to inform customers of expected delivery delays.
7. Billing practices. A full disclosure of your billing procedures should be made available to customers at the time of purchase.
   • Tell your customers when their cards will be charged.
   • Inform customers how the transaction will be displayed on their credit card statement, so they can easily identify it.
   • Advise customers to keep a copy of the transaction.
   • Include your billing disclosure in the order confirmation email that you will send to your customers.
8. Transaction currency. Clearly state the currency that your transactions will be processed in. Do not assume that your customers will know that. Remember that the internet allows consumers from all over the world to visit your website. Once you have stated the transaction currency, you may provide a currency conversion tool to help consumers estimate the cost in their own money, but you should clearly state that this tool provides the conversion amount for information purposes only.



9. Home country. You need to state the country your business is established on your website. Your payment processor can help you with the statement.
10. Export restrictions. List on your website all export restrictions that you are aware of for the products that you sell.
11. Privacy statement. You will have to develop a privacy statement and make it available on the home page of your website. You should tell visitors:
    • What customer information is collected and tracked.
    • With whom this information is shared.
    • How customers can opt out.
12. Register with a privacy organization and display their sign on your website. A membership with an organization like BBBOnLine is another way to demonstrate to your website’s visitors that you are serious about protecting personal data.