Help Your Customers Buy More – Make Them Feel Safe

By Butch Pujol
Posted Wednesday, December 1, 2004

You have permission to publish this article free of charge either electronically or in print, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.

One of the biggest fears of online consumers is that they will be taken advantage of. After all, they don’t know you and they don’t know if you run a reputable business. Hesitance to buy is a natural feeling. But, if you want to increase sales at your Web site try providing a little consumer protection information.

Internet scams are on the rise. Unfortunately, there are a lot of uneducated consumers that get scammed who don’t even know that there is consumer protection information available or where to find it. These scams drastically hurt every upstanding online businessperson. How? Think about it. Each time a first time Internet consumer gets taken advantage of they are finished buying anything online. That means, because of the scam artists – you and I lose out, too!

The only way to stop the scams and protect our customers and ourselves is to get actively involved. You and I must help make the Internet a safer place to do business. By doing so you will increase your own consumer confidence and increase your sales.

How do we do this? One simple step can start the ball rolling. As an ethical, online business owner, you can help the consumer get educated on how to buy safely online, how to look at a Web site and tell if it is legit or a scam, and how to report unethical sites in order to put them out of business. In addition, you can provide the consumer with the information he/she needs to recover losses if they find themselves being taken advantage of.

Sound like a lot of extra work for you? Not really. If you don’t think you would have room on your site to post such information, simply place a link to a consumer advocacy site where your visitors can easily find it.

This is especially important for those who operate article, e-book and ezine sites. I personally have visited many of these sites and was shocked to find they had no categories for consumer protection or Internet safety. Visitors look to these sites in order to find the detailed information they need to make wise buying decisions. While consumer advocates CAN still post their information, they are forced to place it in such categories as “nonfiction” and “general”. The poor consumer is then forced to dig for or accidentally trip over the information in order to find it.

Here are three sites that do fight the war on unethical business practices and provide easy to find consumer protection and Internet safety education information. In my opinion, they deserve your business.

eBook Palace
(http://www.ebookpalace.com/cgi-bin/search/hyperseek.cgi)

The International Council of Online Professionals (iCop™) (http://www.i-cop.org/directory/index.htm)

eBooks N' Bytes
(http://www.ebooksnbytes.com/ebooks.shtml)

So by simply adding a consumer protection and Internet safety information (or a link to a consumer advocacy site) in an easy-to-find place, you can help fight the war on unethical business practices. By doing so you increase your own consumer confidence and sales.

Either we stand up and fight for our consumers, educate them and enlist their help in the war against unethical business practices, or continue to loose sales because consumers are afraid to buy online. The decision is yours.

If you would like a copy of this article, send a blank email to the address below.
mailto:helpyourcustomers@safeinternetbusiness.com

About the Author
Butch Pujol is an online Consumer Advocate who helps you make the most of the Internet. Whether you're a business owner or a consumer, find out more about shopping safely online - and how to get your money back if you have already been scammed. Go to (http://www.safeinternetbusiness.com/articles/articles-by-butch.htm) for more info on Consumer Protection and Internet Safety.