By the year 2023, it is estimated that the total sales in the realm of e-commerce will skyrocket to $1.065 trillion.
We bet that your business also contributes to this mind-blowing number. However, are there some times when you feel worried about cyber attacks ruining all your valuable time and efforts?
This is the concern of several sellers and customers, therefore, Shopify’s experts have diligently developed and finalized the full security of Shopify.
Today, this article will give you a detailed guide and tips on Shopify security to ensure your customer protection, as well as maintain a robust e-commerce online business.
Rest assured, and read on!
| 💡 Recommend reading: |
What Is Shopify Security?
Shopify security is the protection measures taken to help protect and secure Shopify stores from cyberattacks and other online threats.
Here are some key measures of Shopify security:
- Two-Factor Authentication: In addition to your password, Shopify adds an extra layer of security to your Shopify store by requiring an extra code from your phone, or a security key.
- SSL Encryption: This measure guarantees that data is securely encoded, which blocks out access from unauthorized individuals. From that, Shopify can safeguard sensitive customer data during transactions.
- Fraud Prevention: Shopify provides businesses with a fraud prevention mechanism against potentially fraudulent transactions. This layer of protection blocks specific IP addresses and credit card numbers that are linked to suspicious activities.
- PCI Compliance: Shopify maintains full PCI compliance, which signifies its adherence to the rigorous Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).
Moreover, Shopify Support is always present to work with merchants and solve any particular security issue!
| 💡 To learn more about SSL encryption, check out: What Does SSL Pending Mean On Shopify And How To Fix? |
Why Is Shopify Security Important?
Have you ever imagined the loss when not using Shopify security? To emphasize the need for Shopify security, let’s go through some hypothetical case studies to rate its importance for your online brands.
First of all, consider a situation where a Shopify store fails to comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requirements. Consequently, the business faces penalties, fines, and potential legal issues.
In this case, PCI compliance is there by default for every Shopify business, helping merchants fulfill their obligations and protecting sensitive cardholder data.
In another scenario, a Shopify store owner becomes a target of a fraudulent transaction due to inadequate security measures. As a result, the business suffers significant financial losses, chargebacks, and disputes.
Shopify security offers several fraud prevention features and tools to minimize fraud and the consequences that can impact your store.
Lastly, an e-commerce business is facing a data breach, compromising customer information like names, addresses, and payment details.
Shopify prevents such issues by implementing SSL encryption, which can comprehensively protect customer data and preserve the integrity of businesses and their customers.
Shopify Security Checklist: How To Protect Your Shop
1. Secure form fields on your store from malicious bots
During our time of researching and advising solutions and tips for e-commerce sellers, many cases are happening with form bots. They are considered the biggest Shopify security threat since they hinder your store performance and steal your customers’ data.
The good news is you can enable Google’s reCAPTCHA from your Shopify admin, with the following steps:
- Go to Online Store in the menu and click Preferences
- Ticked all the boxes in the Spam Protection field
- Click Save
Enable Google reCAPTCHA from Spam Protection options
Besides, adding a double opt-in form, using a third-party app, or choosing one of the form bot protection tools is a great choice. We will go through some of these tools in a minute!
2. Take periodic backups of your Shopify store
Shopify supports their merchants with multiple security measures. But when it comes to restoring your stores’ data, Shopify only conducts platform-wide backups, rather than adding a built-in restore feature for individual sites.
Hence, you’ll have to do it manually or with the support of other apps to avoid Shopify security risks.
Backing up your store’s data might be simpler than you think. You can:
- Use a CSV file to export data
- Copy and paste stores’ items
It will take a lot of time and effort, so we advise you to use tools such as Rewind Backups, Backup Master, and Automatic Backup.
3. Use a secure payment gateway
Payment is one of the most sensitive concerns of e-shoppers. No one wants their credit card numbers to be leaked outside for illegal purposes. Therefore, you, as a Shopify merchant, need to be aware of the secure payment gateway.
Shopify security understands the problems and offers all merchants a convenient solution, named Shopify Payments. It meets all requirements and standards in the security field.
Shopify provides an extensive video guide on Shopify Payments and how to set it up for your store!
The good news is … Shopify Payments doesn’t require you to pay transaction fees! You won’t be able to find this opportunity with many external payment alternatives.
In case you want to have more options, you can try some popular payment gateways such as Paypal or Stripe.
These gateways can secure your payment information during transactions, as they adhere to PCI-DSS compliance standards and operates on HTTPS with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption!
4. Use a country or IP-blocking solution
Even though your Shopify store’s vision is going global, you still need some restrictions on IP. It can redirect or block some specific countries that you don’t want to access your site.
Some Shopify blocker apps you can check out are Blocky, Easy Country Blocker, and Shop Secure!
| Apps | Blocky | Easy Country Blocker | Shop Secure |
| Price | – Free plan available
– 7-day free trial |
– $5.99/month
– 10-day free trial |
– Free plan available
– 7-day free trial |
| Key features | – No code is required to install the app
– Country and IP blocker – Utilize GeoIP to redirect customers based on locations. |
– Block fraud visitors
– Restrict the visibility of your store to specific countries |
– Country and IP blocker
– Utilize a GDPR consent banner to obtain visitor consent for cookies. |
5. Use strong passwords and two-factor authentication
Two-factor authentication is a must-have when it comes to Shopify security.
After setting it up, you will only need to take two steps to log into your Shopify account: Type your password and a code will be sent to your mobile phone or computer.
Set a strong password with two-step authentication to protect your account
Moreover, set a strong password to defend against hackers. Your password should be long and complex (but still easy to remember), with uppercases, numbers, and symbols to avoid information leaks.
6. Hide specific pages or discounted prices
In some cases, you can hide prices, add-to-cart buttons, or specific products on your storefront to ensure a smooth shopping experience for authorized users.
Choose specific pages or discounted prices to hide
In some cases, you’ll need a professional coder to hide this kind of information. Fortunately, you can use some supported apps such as Wholesale Lock Manager (WLM) to help you simplify the process.
7. Use GDPR cookies consent bar
According to a survey by Data Privacy Management, 79% of participants expressed concern about how companies collect and utilize their data.
Therefore, the GDPR policy is used as a standard for all online merchants to abide by when collecting data from customers. Cookie consent bars typically appear as either a floating bar or a popup on websites.
Moreover, following the GDPR can help save costs or unnecessary fines. For instance, Amazon had to pay $877 million for a GDPR fine due to violation regards processing customer data.
Pandectes GDPR Compliance, Booster, and GDPR/CCPA Compliance Manager are our recommendations for your cookies consent bar.
8. Protect yourself from Phishing
Phishing refers to scams where fake websites, emails, or messages are used to steal personal information. The aim is to gain unauthorized access to accounts and sensitive data.
Hackers often use strange words and URLs for their cyber attacks. Therefore, you must be aware of the suspicious signs. Here is an example:
| Legitimate URL | Phony URL |
| example-apparel.com/aquatic/swimmies | example-apparel.com-aquatic.net/swimmies |
Top 8 Shopify Security Tools
Shopify Security is equipped with a range of top-notch available tools. Here are 8 notable ones that we recommend:
1. Store Watchers
With advanced surveillance capabilities, Store Watchers keep a keen eye on suspicious activities, unauthorized access attempts, and anomalous behavior, promptly alerting you to any potential security breaches.
The best part? It can be downloaded straight from Shopify App Store!
Let’s look at how Store Watchers can strengthen Shopify security in a specific way:
- Test the smooth functioning of critical aspects of your Shopify store such as Add to Cart, Customer Login, Storefront URLs, and Product search.
- Access logs of both failed and successful tests, allowing you to track and review customers’ outcomes.
- Receive timely notifications whenever an issue arises.
2. SiteCheck by Sucuri (Malware Scanner)
SiteCheck, developed by Sucuri, is becoming a famous free URL scanner tool. It will conduct thorough scans of your Shopify store to identify potential vulnerabilities, malware, and other security risks.
SiteCheck by Sucuri
Now, take a closer look at Sitecheck’s advantages:
- Security alerts: You will receive quick notifications whenever the Sucuri website monitoring system finds any problems with your website.
- Security monitoring: The Sucuri site check scanner automatically examines your website to confirm that it is free from malware, suspicious redirects, iframes, and link injections.
3. SSL Certificate Checker by DigiCert
SSL Certificate stands for Secure Socket Layer. It will encrypt the data transmitted between two parties, ensuring that the information remains confidential and inaccessible to unauthorized individuals, even those sharing the same network.
An amazing point is … Shopify provides a free SSL Certificate Checker for merchants, so you can be sure about all your content websites and traffic!
SSL Certificate Checker
Let’s see what you can do with it now!
- Secure all your customers’ data, from credit card numbers to passwords.
- Improve the SEO performance of your brands and businesses.
- Identify specific installation problems preventing the proper functioning of the certificate.
4. Password Checker by Kaspersky
According to a report from Kaspersky, around 83% of individuals continue to enter their passwords themselves, and surprisingly, more than half of them are unaware of how to determine if their passwords have been hacked or not.
Password Checker by Kaspersky
This situation may also happen to your customers, then it’s time to secure passwords by using Password Checker by Kaspersky:
- Security alerts of the leaked passwords.
- Easy interface to use.
- Check password resistance.
5. Dashlane Password Manager
Similar to Kaspersky Checker, Dashlane Password Manager is a tool to secure your passwords. However, you can find more functions here:
- Identity Dashboard: You can easily keep track of your personal information and stay informed if any of your data is exposed or compromised. It also assesses the strength of your passwords and provides a comprehensive analysis, indicating your passwords’ healthy score.
- Automatic Password Changer: Since you are too lazy to note all your passwords, Dashland provides a one-click solution to help you in this case. It will change your passwords if you find any compromises.
- Two-factor authentication: It adds an extra layer of protection to your online accounts.
6. Google Authenticator
We bet that Google Authenticator may be a familiar tool for most Shopify merchants. It helps to protect your online store by two-factor requirements when logging in.
The process of setting up a Google authenticator for your Shopify security is simple with only 3 steps:
- Click to Manage Account
- Click Security then scroll down to Two-step authentication
- Click Turn on two-step, then you will have options to choose from
Google Authenticator
7. Blocky: Fraud Country Blocker
Blocky, as its name, has the function of blocking any IP or traffic from specific countries, depending on your preferences. It offers a free plan and a 7-day free trial to experience.
Blocky: Fraud Country Blocker
There are several features that you can use in Blocky:
- Block IP addresses: You can stop unwanted access immediately by adding the IP address of the person to the app’s blacklist.
- Block or redirect country-specific visitors: You can easily set up a rule to automatically redirect customers accessing your store from a particular country.
- Customize messages: You can wording of the message that will be displayed to visitors who are blocked.
8. Wholesale Lock Manager
Wholesale Lock Manager offers a unique solution for wholesale pricing by allowing Shopify sellers to secure specific pages or the entire storefront of your Shopify store.
With this app, you can differentiate between your wholesale and retail customers within your Shopify store. It is convenient to manage both aspects of your business in one place.
FAQs
1. Is Shopify safe?
Shopify is considered the leader of e-commerce platforms, specifically designed for small and medium businesses. It is equipped with hundreds of experts to update security every year. So the short answer is yes, Shopify is legit!
To ensure 100% security, you should have another B plan for any case. The steps below will guide you through storing your brands’ data by exporting CVS.
Step 1: Log into the Shopify Admin
Step 2: Choose the information that you want to store/ back up
Step 3: Click “Export”
Step 4: Click “Export products”
Although you need to do some manual tasks, it keeps your Shopify store safer. You can use an app called Rewind Backups to help you back up your Shopify security every day.
2. How can I add trust badges to Shopify?
Trust badges play an important role in Shopify security since they can reassure your e-customers and bring a higher conversion rate to your benefits. The steps are simple to be done within 5 minutes:
Step 1: Log into your Shopify account
Step 2: Look at the Sales Channel and click Online store
Step 3: Choose Theme, then go to Action and click Duplicate
Step 4: Click Edit Code and edit the coding area when it appears. You can find out more information in some articles related to Shopify’s secure badge
Step 5: Click Save when you’ve completed
3. How often will Shopify update its security?
Shopify values collaborations with trusted partners to ensure the security and reliability of their solutions. Moreover, it has published and updated several protection policies every year, following regular reviews from Shopify merchants.
Final Thoughts
In a world full of cyberattacks and hackers, Shopify security acts as a superhero for your online brands. It adapts to the quick change of globalization and satisfies all security needs.
To sum up, this article has brought a clear explanation, along with a variety of checklists and tools to help your e-commerce platforms be well-prepared. What are you still waiting for? Protect your store today!
And don’t forget to check out OneCommerce Blog regularly to stay up-to-date with our useful Shopify sources!