Heads up Retailers- Consumers Won’t Shop with Breached Businesses

Being the holiday season, consumers are shopping more than ever, but do shoppers care about potentially suffering from a data breach?

A few study conducted by Gemalto has found that almost two-thirds of shoppers globally won’t shop with a brand that’s suffered from a data breach.

During this study over 5,700 consumers were polled in the US, UK, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, and Brazil to help understand consumers attitudes when it comes to data security.

Researchers concluded that retailers with poor security practices are likely to lose 64% of potential customers if they suffer a breach where consumer financial credentials are compromised.

Similarly, 59% of shoppers fell more likely to lose their personal information during the busy holiday season with even 18% of consumers polled feeling they will actually become a victim of a data breach during this time.

The majority of individuals polled, 69%, believe it is absolutely an organization's responsibility to secure consumer data rather than that of the company’s.

As retailers focus solely on maximizing sales around this time, it’s important to note that hackers are doing the same. Tim Lansdale, Head of Payment Security at Worldwide, stated that hackers use the online sale rushes to stockpile thousands of consumer credit card details, and it isn’t until around February that they start using these credentials to make fraudulent purchases.

As a consumer, it’s always important to keep an eye on your finances, but now more than ever, be sure to be on the lookout for any suspicious activity and report it to your financial provider immediately.

As for retailers, the consumers have spoken and are siding with companies who take protecting their personal and financial information very seriously. Best security practices should be mandatory and of top priority and turning a blind eye to this issue is only going to show in loss of consumer loyalty and sales.

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