Getting the Nervous Nellies to Buy Online

Up to 40% of the U.S. population still refuses to buy online. The reason: They're afraid. They're afraid that their card number will be stolen or that their personal data will fall into the hands of identity thieves. And with all the press coverage about identity theft, who can blame them? Yet, from the consumer's perspective online shopping is probably the most secure form of making a credit card transaction, and this session will discuss approaches e-retailers and credit card companies are taking to ease those nervous consumers' minds—before, during and after the online shopping process. Our first speaker is from Visa and will discuss the marketing and advertising campaigns that Visa has undertaken to assure web shoppers that their data is safe when buying online. Our second speaker, Michael Phillips, will discuss Yankee Candle's recent "Hacker Safe" marketing campaign and will detail the results of tests that showed customers were more comfortable buying at web sites where safety was stressed and openly addressed.