[ic] Please Help - secure.domainname.com doesn't work.

[Jim Balcom]

On Wed, 4 Apr 2001, Mike Heins wrote:

MH>>As someone pointed out, getting a cert is the best move. Of course
MH>>it usually requires a separate IP address which is not good for
MH>>name-based virtual hosting. For businesses with any large amount
MH>>of orders it more than pays for itself -- it has been proven by
MH>>surveys that a not-insignificant portion of customers notice the 
MH>>change in URL and refuse to purchase when relocated.


I can vouch for this, firsthand. I let my cert lapse for nearly a year.
I didn't think that most people would notice, and I didn't feel that I
could afford the cost of the cert. However, every once in a while I
would get an e-mail giving me a dig about the lack of a secure server,
and that they refused to buy from me.

In January of this year, I renewed my cert and got the secure server
back up.

Oct, Nov, and December of 2000 had grossed about the same amounts and
this was pretty much in line with the previous months - showing a small
growth - maybe 5%.

The secure server went up on January 3rd. I saw a 34% increase in gross
sales in January over December. In 28 days of February, I did 50% more
gross than I did in the 31 days in January. I don't have the exact
percentage for March, but it is significantly higher than February.

I've made no significant changes to my product line, how I advertise,
or how I do business. My store has been in the search engines for
nearly 18 months, so it wasn't a matter of the engines suddenly picking
me up.

Having a dedicated secure server that doesn't run up flags gives buyers
confidence that the store is real and credible. Just as having a
merchant account in your own company name for processing charge cards
also gives credability. It's a hassle to get one in your own name, but
the confidence it instills is tremendous.

I dunno. Maybe the cert had nothing to do with the sudden growth of my
business. I have had to move to a bigger physical space in order to
handle the stock, and the shipping. I've also taken on a full-time
employee. (I had been running it by myself.) Maybe my business would
have doubled in 3 months if I'd done nothing. 

-= Jim =-

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Tagline for Wednesday, April 04, 2001 at 18:00 PM:
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