FogDog Sports sees 5% conversion lift with display of Hacker Safe logo

Site certification remains a key tool for boosting online conversion rates at e-commerce sites and a recent test on FogDog.com demonstrates to what extent. FogDog is a retail site but also a research and development outlet for third-party services provider and site operator GSI Commerce.

GSI Commerce ran an A/B split test in which the Hacker Safe logo from security certification service ScanAlert was displayed to every other site visitor. Across more than 14,000 orders, GSI Commerce recorded 357 more orders on FogDog (No. 231 in Internet Retailer’s Top 400 Guide to Retail Web Sites) from those visitors who saw the logo than from those who didn’t see it, ScanAlert reports.

The independent certification on top of GSI Commerce’s own IT security program translated a minimal program investment into significant sales and marketing results, according to Joe Romello, GSI Commerce’s vice president of infrastructure. “We wanted to run the test because we were very skeptical that Hacker Safe would have much effect,” he says. “We became believers. A 5% conversion lift for having ScanAlert certify the security of FogDog.com, already solid due to our normal IT activities, was a great result.”

Based on the test, GSI Commerce has already added the security program and logo to web sites it operates for other Internet Retailer Top 400 retailers, including The Sports Authority Inc. (No. 107), Linens ‘n Things Inc.( No. 101) and others. Scan Alert performs daily scans of a site to ensure it’s fully current with the latest patches needed to fill security holds that would make a site hacker vulnerable, then certifies the ongoing application of patches. As the outcome of this process, a date-stamped certification mark is served up on the site directly from ScanAlert’s networks.