The Marketing Optimization Blog

Turning More Visitors Into Customers

Blog Home

Do McAfee or HackerSafe Security Badges Increase E-commerce Conversion Rate?

By: Chris Goward
Date: July 9th, 2009

Site-wide Shopping Cart
with McAfee Badge

A client of ours recently tested adding the McAfee Secure badge to their persistent checkout area (the mini shopping cart area that shows up on all pages) and ran a site-wide A/B test. They found that simply adding the badge actually decreased conversions by 1.6%.

I tweeted about this recently and joined others who have seen similar results. There are, of course, positive test results from adding security badges and, in some cases, no difference at all. So, have you tested your security badges?

Should you be paying for third-party security?

We’ve also seen results showing that generic security badges created by the retailer can have similar positive effect as third-party paid services.

Please don’t think that we’re against security services. We’re fans of any service that helps your customers minimize anxiety and increases your conversion rate. If tests show that the badges help, then you can easily do the math on whether to subscribe. In any case, before you blindly pay for security or Trust symbols, ask them to allow you to test the conversion rate improvement!

What do you think?
Have you seen test results of security badges? We’d like to hear from you. Please add your comment below.

What do you think as a shopper? Do security badges make you feel more secure or does it raise security questions you wouldn’t otherwise worry about?

Learn more about the services mentioned in this article:

Ask Us How to Improve Your Conversion Rate

WiderFunnel is the original full service Conversion Optimization agency. When you outsorce you conversion improvement to us you get guaranteed results with an all-inclusive price.

Follow this post's comments with RSS Follow this blog with RSS

Posted in: Ecommerce | conversion rate optimization

This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.

91612 Responses2009-07-09+17%3A02%3A12Chris+Goward to “Do McAfee or HackerSafe Security Badges Increase E-commerce Conversion Rate?”

Jason Billingsley Says:
July 9th, 2009 at 11:04 am
My gut says the decrease was due to placement and prominence. The badge was bigger than the checkout button (which was not done effectively as a different, solid color would likely perform better).

There is often no need to place the security badge on every page. If you re-test with the badge just in the checkout, your results would likely be different. Shoppers who have proceeded to checkout have shown more progress towards transacting. Others are too early on to be thinking about the security of the site. Maybe it gets them thinking cautiously prior to being motivated to act?

It is a re-assurance, not a motivator.
Guru Says:
July 9th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
If I do any kind of shopping online, I would like to see this kind of security badge only at the last page or where I make the payment. If it follows me through out the pages, it would def make me rethink about this site. Why should they keep saying they are secured, weren’t they were secured earlier?

Just my thought!
Guru
Chris Goward Says:
July 10th, 2009 at 8:59 am
@Jason – Your gut is probably right about the Distraction the McAfee logo is causing. It also may be causing Anxiety in some visitors who wouldn’t necessarily worry about security if you don’t make the security message so prominent, as implied by Guru’s comment.

@Guru – Thanks for your input as a shopper. There’s definitely a risk of making assumed securities too prominent. The visitor may start to think that the e-commerce retailer ‘doth protest too much’!
Jan Petrovic Says:
July 14th, 2009 at 3:30 am
This is very interesting finding. I believe it also depends where you place it, and placing it right under the checkout button isn’t probably the best solution.
In our blog I have a case study from petco.com, and they have placed the hacker safe logo in their header. They seen an increase in sales by 8.83%.
As I said, depends where you place it. Testing is always important when you make any change.
kate mckeon Says:
August 13th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
@Jan
A few years back I tested Hackersafe on a number of client sites, including my own e-commerce. Having the security badge on the upper right of the site increased conversion from 4% to 16%(really small site!). It turns out people (well, right handed people) look up and to the right when they are thinking about taking an action. So the security badge was only “visible” when they were thinking about taking the action indicated on the page – it proved to be reassuring.

@Jason, I’d call it the desperate approach. The we’re-so-safe-really-really-we-are approach. If even on the mini-cart it should be microscopic next to “shopping cart” – again, look up and right – not where I usually see submit/buy/checkout.
VA Says:
October 4th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
@Jason – Your gut is probably right about the Distraction the McAfee logo is causing. It also may be causing Anxiety in some visitors who wouldn’t necessarily worry about security if you don’t make the security message so prominent, as implied by Guru’s comment.
@Guru – Thanks for your input as a shopper. There’s definitely a risk of making assumed securities too prominent. The visitor may start to think that the e-commerce retailer ‘doth protest too much’!
CT Says:
October 5th, 2009 at 9:20 am
If I do any kind of shopping online, I would like to see this kind of security badge only at the last page or where I make the payment. If it follows me through out the pages, it would def make me rethink about this site. Why should they keep saying they are secured, weren’t they were secured earlier?
Just my thought!
Guru
MK Says:
October 5th, 2009 at 9:23 am
If I do any kind of shopping online, I would like to see this kind of security badge only at the last page or where I make the payment. If it follows me through out the pages, it would def make me rethink about this site. Why should they keep saying they are secured, weren’t they were secured earlier?
Just my thought!
Guru
Ike Myle Says:
October 23rd, 2009 at 10:41 am
Actually McAfee increase sale. Not that much but think about. First of all you have the logo in google search which make a difference. Second every ecommerce web site must be certified for auditing. McAfee gives you that for a better price. Plus even un experienced user herd of McAfee security so it gives you confidence buying from that site. And not the last McAfee link to your site is very strong and can be found by google as a backlink. So bottom line it is worth it to py the 750$ fee.

Nature Sunshine
Fire Toys Says:
December 14th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Who’s to say people aren’t just BS-ing and using the logo on their site, it’s really not that reliable.

Anyone can just copy and paste security logos on their site. Sure they look nice, but in reality what do they really do??

All Security Badges do is make an un-experienced user feel like they are being safe.

A good hacker can take down any site regardless of a lil security badge.
Sharky Says:
January 19th, 2010 at 9:46 am
Fire Tony :

1. Many of the badges require you to implement javascript on the site.

2. If you roll over a badge, you should get a popup identifying the secure info….

3. You will also see the date updating on a daily basis…

I do agree though, it can be easy just to show the image as a static image….

Still testing otherwise to see if there is any uplift, gut feeling tells me to remove it….
Chris Goward Says:
January 22nd, 2010 at 2:54 pm
It’s true that you could us a static copy of a logo or create your own version of a security logo. Most consumers would have to be sophisticated to know how to check if it’s legitimate.

And tests have shown that, in some cases, any security badge can increase sales just as much as a verified third-party badge.

The conclusion is to test it for yourself in various placements to see what works best for your site.