Why people are afraid of e-commerce
Article written by : Lo Cost Marketing
After all this time, customers are still afraid to shop online. A study by the Department of Commerce showed that half of the respondents did not use e-commerce sites due to security and privacy concerns. Even with the massive growth seen year after year for e-commerce, there remains a large segment of the population that is not willing to buy online. Here are some of the top fears consumers have:
Credit card information
The number one fear is the theft of credit card information. It does not help that cases of identity and credit card theft increase every year. There are also several publicized hacks of prominent sites like Yahoo and Dropbox, which erodes confidence further.
It is not real
The lack of tangible goods to touch, create a disconnect between the customer and the items in the shopping cart. They question if the product even exists. This doubt leads to fears of fraud.
Information
It is so easy to setup a website and e-commerce store that shoppers fear that they exist just to collect personal information. Once given, they worry that offers, emails, junk mail, and catalogs will come from other marketers.
Tracking
Shoppers also worry about losing good in transit. This fear explains the sudden increase in the popularity of tracked shipping. Even cheaper and slower mail have options that include limited tracking. They are willing to pay more for shipping if they can see where it is at any given point during transit.