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Without sufficient security, SA's online retailers will not be in a position to profit from an expected e-business market boom in 2013.
The boom predicted by World Wide Worx's Online Retail 2010 survey means more South Africans will participate in online shopping, opening the market for online fraud as well.
The country is already an online fraud hotspot, with the International Fraud Reporting 2009 study ranking SA sixth out of the world's top 10 countries hosting online fraud perpetrators. The report also highlights consumer complaints of online credit and debit card fraud, which account for 9% of all online fraud complaints.
To counter the rising threat standards, solutions such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security (PCI DSS), to protect credit card users and merchants against fraud, are needed to protect the transaction process, as well as the cardholder information.
PCI DSS is the payment card industry requirement for entities that store, process or transmit cardholder data, and has been endorsed by all the major card brands.
“Compliance with standards like PCI DSS is an important element of what we call 'trust strategy', which is a key to the success and sustainability of any online retailer,” says Arthur Goldstuck, MD of World Wide Worx. “When we conduct benchmarking of online retailers' Web sites against best practice, poor trust strategy can count heavily against them,” he warns.
Goldstuck notes that the 2013 boom will happen regardless of whether online retailers are compliant or not. However, for online retailers to take advantage of the boom, the trust strategy and compliance with payment standards are integral.
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