B2B Retailer ID’s McAfee SECURE Service as Path to Higher Sales

Background
Security is often top of mind for visitors to ID Card Group’s web site. A B2B supplier of ID equipment and supplies, the company provides the security and marketing industries with equipment and supplies to produce employee ID badges, as well as gift and promotional cards.

Challenge
The ID card market is a highly competitive vertical and online sales an increasingly important channel. According to ID Card Group’s President Mark Soeth, the web site is his primary marketing channel, generating 80% of corporate sales. Traffi c is driven through a combination of paid and organic search activity and optimization. With secure access one of the major applications of its product line, customers, who range from conventions and businesses, to schools and government agencies, expect a reassuring online shopping experience. According to Soeth, security and trust infl uence customers and prospects.

“We want them to see us as a highly secure environment because security is often on their minds.”

“McAfee SECURE service delivers a strong ROI; I just wish that we had done this earlier.”

Mark Soeth
President, ID Card Group

Solution
Although the previous owners had used an SSL trustmark for many years, they had never used web site security services, Soeth chose to evaluate McAfee SECURE trustmark services. He and his web programmer Konstantin Mikhaylov liked what they saw.

Thousands of websites have found McAfee SECURE service an effective way to reassure site visitors that their personal and fi nancial information–once given to the retailer–will be safer and more secure. The service is based on daily vulnerability scanning that tests websites for more than 10,000 threats, in addition to anti-spyware/malware scanning that extends protection to consumers. It helps websites protect themselves against hackers and data thieves while helping protect consumers against related security issues such as spamming and phishing attacks. Once certifi ed, sites can display the McAfee SECURE trustmark, in addition to being highlighted in Google, Live Search and Yahoo! search results to the millions of consumers that use McAfee SiteAdvisor® software.

“The visibility of the McAfee SECURE trustmark, particularly through its annotation of search results in SiteAdvisor, intrigued me very strongly. Anything that can help you stand out as a search engine marketer usually makes you money.”

“We’ve gained a huge amount of positive brand association by using the same trustmark big national chain store retailers use. McAfee SECURE service delivers such a strong ROI that I just wish we had done this earlier.”

Mark Soeth
President, ID Card Group

Implementation
Deployment of McAfee SECURE service was two-phased. While McAfee’s technical support staff collaborated with Mikhaylov to remediate the security issues discovered during the initial security review, Soeth worked with other McAfee support personnel to optimize the position of the trustmark on the site, following recommendations to place the image ‘up front and center at the top of the home page.’

Intrigued by the projected sales increase suggested by McAfee’s ROI calculator, Soeth choose to implement an A/B test (something he characterizes as a simple dollars and cents project) in which 50% of visitors would see the McAfee SECURE trustmark, while the other half (the control group) would not.

The addition of the McAfee SECURE trustmark to IDCardGroup.com increased conversion rates by 9.9%

Results and ROI
During the test period, IDCardGroup.com registered more than 800 total orders. Shoppers seeing the McAfee SECURE trustmark converted 9.9% higher than those who did not see it. In addition to increased sales, Soeth can also use McAfee SECURE service to help become certifi ed to the Payment Card Industry (PCI) data security standard.

“We’re set up now for PCI. My background is working in regulated industries and I like to do things by the book.”

Moving Forward
ID Card Group’s customers are happy and Mikhaylov enthusiastic about the recommendations for security improvement. Soeth is delighted with the PCI compliance validation (included at no cost in the subscription fee), the incremental sales increase, and the glowing feedback he has heard from customers 'saying that it is great that we’re using this McAfee service.’