Shopify is a leading e-commerce platform today, with 700,000 users worldwide. It brings many benefits and convenience for business owners in operating online stores. Most Shopify receives positive reviews for its functionality and scalability in the eCommerce field.
However, when you visit a website, you may face many situations about security, safety, etc….. so you need to know whether the website is safe or legal or not. So, let’s evaluate whether Shopify is a secure platform for customers.
In this article, we will help you answer the question “Is Shopify Safe for your online business” and how to stay safe online shopping on eCommerce platforms.
Contents
Overview of Shopify
What Is Shopify?
If you are a new customer of Shopify, you should learn basic knowledge about what Shopify is and why people like it.
Shopify is an online store platform for anyone who wants to buy an online store. You don’t need to know how to create a website by code or all of the things relevant to the technique, Shopify will help you build your online store in easy ways.
Besides, there are lots of free apps and free themes that can help you to reach more business online and boost sales quickly.
Shopify’s pros
Shopify, a well-known name in the eCommerce world, offers a bunch of great things:
- Easy to use: You don’t need to be a tech whiz. You can create an online store without any coding skills.
- Shopify theme: Shopify has over 100 free and premium themes to design your store. If that’s not enough, there are even more themes made by people worldwide.
- Shopify apps: There are over 7,200 apps in the Shopify App Store. It’s like an extensive menu of tools for your store. But remember, not all of them are free, so choose wisely. Explore best apps on Shopify to help you increase sales.
Shopify’s cons
Of course, Shopify has some drawbacks, too, including:
- Potential cost increase: While Shopify has consistent pricing, you might need to use various plugins for the best results. These can add up and lead to higher expenses than you initially expected. Some apps even cost more than Shopify’s basic monthly plan.
- SEO limitations: Shopify does its best to support online businesses, but certain SEO features that can help your store grow are only available through third-party apps, which come with their costs, as mentioned earlier.
Is Shopify Safe?
What makes an online store safe? Well, there are five important security things to look at. We’ll also talk about how Shopify keeps these things secure. Let’s go into more detail on each one below.
Credit Card Data
The first thing to consider is payment security, specifically when customers enter their credit card information to make a purchase. Some payment methods, like Tokenized, keep credit card data away from your server, but others require a very secure and PCI-compliant server to handle these transactions. This is important to ensure that your customers can shop without worrying about the safety of their payment information.
If your customers’ credit card data gets stolen from your website, you’ll lose those customers for good and face legal consequences. Some businesses have faced problems like this, and the outcomes have varied. However, stealing someone’s name, email, and credit card information can lead to financial losses, something neither merchants nor customers want.
SSL
SSL, which stands for Secure Sockets Layer, is important for online businesses. It must ensure that all the content and scripts on your website are delivered over SSL. SSL helps you safeguard your payments and prevents shady external scripts from causing trouble on your site or your customers’ browsers.
The good news is that all Shopify stores automatically come with SSL. This means that SSL protection is active on your entire store with just a few clicks as long as you’re not using any insecure scripts. And the best part is that Shopify includes the SSL certificate in its monthly fees, so you don’t need to worry about extra costs.
Customer Data
When customers go through the checkout process, as a store owner, you gather a lot of information about them, like their name, address, email, the products they ordered, and even their passwords. It’s crucial to ensure you can securely store this customer data in line with your country’s laws because every place has rules about protecting customer information. Please do so to avoid legal actions and fines.
Shopify takes this seriously and has implemented several measures to keep customer data safe over the years. When you use Shopify, you can collect and update customer data securely. They’ve also taken steps to prevent data leaks, like limiting login attempts and controlling what data app developers can access. So, you can trust that customer data is very secure on Shopify thanks to its system.
Admin Security
Store owners need to pay close attention to two important questions:
- Is the admin area of your website secure and safe?
- Do you have measures in place to prevent brute-force attacks?
If an attacker manages to access your store’s admin account, they could gain control over your entire website. As your online business becomes more successful, it becomes a bigger target for hacking attempts.
When it comes to Shopify, they have a secure backend that offers a privileged system for store owners. This means that store owners can set up staff accounts with different access levels. Various measures are in place to verify and block access to ensure security, protecting both admin and staff accounts from brute force attacks.
Fraud Protection
Sometimes, customers might place fraudulent orders with your store without you realizing it. If this happens, you could end up losing money. Fraudsters often look for easy targets, and when they find one, they strike quickly and disappear without a trace.
The likelihood of this problem depends on the type of products you sell because some are more commonly targeted by fraudsters than others. So, it’s important to have measures to deal with potentially fraudulent transactions to minimize risks.
Regarding Shopify, they have a robust fraud prevention system to identify potentially fraudulent orders. This system allows you to review these orders manually before processing them.
You also have the flexibility to decide whether orders should be fulfilled manually or automatically. If any orders are flagged as suspicious, they are thoroughly investigated before being shipped. Common signs of potential fraud include address mismatches and multiple attempts with different cards.
How can I ensure the security of my website and data
The security protocols mentioned earlier are widely recognized as the safest and most cost-effective ways to protect your online data. In addition to these, Shopify provides various solutions to enhance your data’s security, including:
- Two-factor authentication: This ensures that only authorized admins with dual passwords can change your Shopify store or access financial information.
- Account locking: If Shopify detects any potential compromise of your information or suspicious login attempts, it will automatically lock your account.
- Identity confirmation: If your Shopify store remains inactive for more than three months, Shopify will require you to confirm your identity.
But if you’re still not entirely convinced, there are additional steps you can take to secure your website further:
- Schedule regular backups: While Shopify has a robust hosting infrastructure to ensure data redundancy, it can’t prevent human errors like accidental data deletion. Regularly backing up your data is a good practice to ensure you can quickly recover lost information.
- Change your passwords regularly: Changing your passwords periodically adds an extra layer of protection to prevent potential leaks, mainly if you use your laptop in public places.
- Lock restricted content: Sometimes, your business may require restricted content, such as for premium customers or investors. The Shopify App Store offers tools like Locksmith to help manage these needs.
- Types of scams on Shopify
Even though Shopify works hard to stop scams, some tricky folks still find ways to cheat honest online store owners. Let’s look at some common scams that can target Shopify store owners:
Triangulation Scam: This is a common and sneaky trick. Scammers create real-looking Shopify stores and place orders with online suppliers, which they send to customers. It might seem like a legitimate dropshipping business, but these scammers use stolen credit cards for orders, so the transactions get rejected. They then claim money back through chargebacks on Shopify, leaving the supplier without the product and the money.
Duplicator Scam: Scammers set up fake Shopify stores that look like real ones and then accuse the genuine store of copyright violations. This can result in real sellers losing customers and money.
Fake Return Ticket Scam: This one takes longer to pull off but is still a classic scam. Scammers buy a product from your store for real, keep the receipt, and then buy a similar but more expensive item. After purchasing the pricier item, they claim a return and send back the cheaper product, keeping the more expensive one for themselves.
Fake PayPal Invoice Scam: Scammers make a purchase and say they can’t complete the payment due to technical issues. They ask for a direct PayPal invoice. After you send the invoice, you get a fake notification from PayPal saying the buyer has paid, with the funds on hold until you provide a tracking number. But there’s no real PayPal fund hold, and you’ve given the product to the scammer for free.
Fake Purchase Orders Scam: Scammers who pull this off are pretty good with tech. They pose as regular customers, create a copy of your Shopify checkout page, and mess with the submit button link. They can redirect the order to their hacking software and change the order data, especially the price. You need to notice the shift in price to avoid losing money on that order.
How To Avoid And Report Scams On Shopify?
How to avoid Scams on Shopify
To avoid most of the scams mentioned, there are some steps you can take, although they may offer little protection. We’ll do our best to give you the best tips for avoiding scams.
- Avoiding Triangulation Scam: Unfortunately, store owners can’t prevent this scam. It’s up to consumers to be cautious about where they shop online, keep their card details private using antivirus software, and steer clear of suspiciously cheap products.
- Avoiding Duplicator Scam: Shopify is aware of this scheme and actively scans for duplicate online stores, taking them down. They also offer monthly transaction maintenance for merchants, so you don’t need to worry too much about this scam. If you sell original products and want to be extra careful, consider trademarking your business.
- Avoiding Fake Return Tickets: The best defense against this scam is to make your products easily distinguishable. Add unique identifiers like serial numbers to your products, and the problem will be solved.
- Avoiding Fake PayPal Invoices: You can enhance the checkout process by not allowing PayPal invoices or choosing a safer payment option. Only ship the product once you’ve received payment.
- Avoiding Fake Purchase Orders: Start by double-checking every order before shipping. If you have the resources, consider hiring IT experts to detect frauds like this.
While scammers can be creative, Shopify has put in extra measures to spot potentially fraudulent orders and give you a heads-up. It’s a good idea to check all orders flagged by Shopify. For more information, you can watch this video to understand better how to prevent fraud.
How to Report Scams on Shopify
As a customer, if you encounter a problem with any Shopify store, you can report it right here.
However, if you are a merchant and have been scammed, Shopify only has a single solution for some cases. Fortunately, you’ll probably need to reach out to their customer support, which is quite responsive. If you receive a suspicious message that you believe is part of a phishing scam, immediately forward it to Shopify’s safety inbox at https://www.shopify.com/security-response
In A Nutshell
In summary, Shopify is a very secure platform for online businesses, making it challenging to find a safer eCommerce platform. BSS Shopify Commerce also shared some tips above to assist you in determining if a website is safe and legitimate.
After reading this article helps you answer the question “Is Shopify Safe For Your Online Business?” and avoid scams when shopping on Shopify as a customer. If you have any more questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to ask; we’re here to assist you.
Want to know more about Shopify? Check these posts below:
- Shopify Fees Guide: All Costs For Operating a Shopify Store
- Shopify Fees per Sale
- Shopify Features: All to know
- How Does Shopify Work: A Complete Guide
- 150+ Best Shopify Store Name Ideas
- Shopify Pricing Plans
- How to Sell on Shopify
FAQs
1. Can you trust Shopify?
Yes, making payments through Shopify is safe.
Shopify employs SSL and PCI-compliant security measures to safeguard financial and sensitive data during transactions
2. Is Shopify safe and secure?
Shopify holds a Level 1 PCI DSS compliance certification. This means that all Shopify online stores are automatically PCI compliant, providing peace of mind to your customers when they shop on your site and enhancing your business’s credibility and security
3. Is Shopify safe from hackers?
Shopify ensures a secure shopping experience for its merchants’ customers by regularly updating its security systems following industry best practices. However, to enhance your online store’s security and deter hackers, you can take the following steps:
- Maintain a secure network
- Implement a vulnerability management program
