The MasterCard’s Safety and Security Index reported that up to 31% of shoppers worry about their orders not being delivered at all, with 10% having experienced it. Interestingly, despite this worry, consumers in Southeast Asia have been increasingly active online. Eighty percent of consumers made online transactions within a three-month period in 2015.
To remove anxiety when shopping online, MasterCard has some recommendations.
But how do you keep on doing your beloved online shopping with excitement instead of anxiety?
- To shop with a peace of mind, look out for security badges on the checkout page before you proceed to purchase your item. This ensures that the retailer meets the industry security standards.
- Take note of your retailers’ customer support services. This can be by way of a telephone number, an online chat box or an address on the checkout page. Having someone you can contact is reassuring, just in case there are any problems with your order.
- If you are shopping on the go and worried about the reliability of the mobile app you’re using, make sure you only download apps by trusted app creators and well-known shopping websites. It also helps to read reviews and ratings before you download the app to ensure its legitimacy.
- Speaking of mobile shopping, use mobile anti-virus protection on your cell phone! It adds an extra layer of safety by protecting any sensitive information and offering lost-device security.
- Last but not least, always check that your connection to a website is secure. Look out for a green padlock on the side of your address bar and an ‘s’ at the start of the web address (https:// instead of http://). This signals that the website is encrypted, which protects your personal information from non-secure sites.
In the rare case that an order goes missing, there are steps that can be taken.
- Notify the merchant immediately to locate your order or request for a refund. Go prepared and expedite the process by providing your order number and receipt. The sooner, the better!
- If the merchant doesn’t respond within a reasonable time frame and you notice you’ve been charged for the order, provide your bank with proof of the merchant’s non-responsiveness (email or paper trails of correspondence) and the transaction being charged to your account. Take care to remove confidential information like account or card numbers. Your bank should have you covered with liability protection.
Delivery delays are common, but they are no small matter when they affect payments. When armed with payment security know-hows, shopping can be done with a peace of mind.
For more information, visit www.mastercard.com/sea/consumer/card-security.html.
