HKIRC’s survey suggested that .hk web sites ranked 8.6% higher than non-.hk sites in the area of “shopping safety” which evaluated respondents' ratings on trust, positive impression and overall perception of safety across a range of websites.
Shea noted that HKIRC adopts very strict criteria for website registration and its recent enhanced services (link to: https://www.hkirc.hk/useHKLock/index.html) around domain name server (DNS) protection--a common target for malicious activity—will help .hk sites be better protected from online threats.
While security is the top concern for web users, the growth in online shopping continues with HKIRC citing numbers from the MasterCard 2013 Online Shopping Survey that indicated 82% of credit card holders in Hong Kong in 2012 had conducted online transactions.
Other findings in the survey showed that over 60% of respondents do not make immediate purchases in physical stores as they may make an online purchase a few days later. Additionally, over 80% of respondents refer to product information online before making purchases in store.
“The survey indicates that the buying behavior of local consumers has changed as more experience with the online shopping process is gained by both the buyers and sellers. Consumers now tend to check online before making a purchase in store, or vice versa,” said Shea.
This growing trend of converging online and offline activities was the key focus at the 2014 Digital Marketplace Seminar organized by HKIRC and held at the Cyberport this week. Companies such as Bank of East Asia, Mabelle and many others shared views on the growing impact of online-to-offline (O2O) activities.
“Businesses can make use of both online and traditional channels to provide more interactive, efficient and assuring services on their websites, while preserving the good attributes of traditional shopping experience,” said Shea. “Retailers who sell their products via offline channels can also grasp this opportunity and achieve breakthroughs with the ongoing development of the new digital economy.”
For useful tips and information on how to spot insecure websites, try these well-known and one would presume secure and trusted sites:
http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-check-if-a-web-site-is-safe/
https://safeweb.norton.com/ - test if your site is safe
This article originally appeared in Computerworld Hong Kong