The Better Business Bureau ushered in National Consumer Protection Week by launching a new Web site on Monday.
The site, called the Safe Shopping Site, lets consumers locate online companies that have met BBB standards for privacy in e-commerce. It also educates online shoppers about how to protect their privacy on the Internet.
"It makes it much easier for consumers to find companies that have committed to our standards," BBBOnline chief operating officer Charlie Underhill told the E-Commerce Times.
The BBB also said it plans to use the site to enable new and existing businesses to comply with customer expectations for privacy.
Consumer Confidence
Visitors to the new site can search among nearly 11,000 Web sites that display one or both of the BBBOnline Privacy and Reliability seals.
"Helping online consumers protect their personally identifiable information and convincing businesses to commit to the fair treatment and use of such information is an important hallmark of BBBOnLine," Underhill said.
"The new BBBOnLine Safe Shopping Site will further enhance our efforts in this arena."
Recent survey statistics indicate that the site's launch is well timed, as alleviating privacy concerns is still an important e-commerce catalyst.
Nearly 9 in 10 consumers would be more confident making an online purchase from a company that displays a BBBOnline Privacy or Reliability Seal than from a company that does not, according to a recent survey by Greenfield Online.
"The BBB system will encourage the business community to step up to the plate and meet consumer expectations regarding online privacy," said Ken Hunter, president and CEO of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) and BBBOnline.
Seal of Approval
While the BBBOnline certifications ensure that sites act responsibly when handling personal information gathered online and that ethical business practices are upheld, the organization cannot keep strict tabs on every business it certifies, Underhill admitted.
But one analyst suggested that a watchdog mentality is not necessary for BBBOnline to positively impact e-commerce.
"To the extent that the [BBBOnline seals] have some name recognition, they provide value," Gartner analyst Kenneth Kerr told the E-Commerce Times. "None of the privacy companies are household names yet, but any seal instills consumer confidence."
That said, 93 percent of online consumers recognize the BBB name, according to Greenfield Online.
Safety Net
While daily monitoring is not possible, streams of inbound complaint calls fielded by BBBOnline enable it to correct egregious lapses in compliance, according to Underhill.
"Consumers turn to the BBB to complain more than they
do to any other organization," he said. "It is this
complaint handling that creates a safety net and
[allows us to pursue] companies that do not make
efforts to resolve complaints."
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