February 20, 2008 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- The danger of identity theft and other security threats has always been a hurdle for online shoppers. And online retailers have long fought to acquire their customers' trust.
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But the large number of online retailers can make it difficult for shoppers to distinguish the good from the bad. The reputation of an e-merchant can be particularly hard to gauge for users who have limited experience in shopping online.
IT security solutions provider Comodo (comodo.com) has added to the range of existing solutions offering a solution that issue with the launch of UserTrust (usertrust.com). Seemingly crafted in the mould of solutions such as RatePoint (ratepoint.com), which launched last year, UserTrust is a feedback and rating platform for online merchants and customers.
"UserTrust provides a critical way for end users to learn which e-merchants can be trusted to do what they say," says Judy Shapiro, VP of marketing for Comodo. "While most people think of user feedback platform as a marketing tool, we think of it as an authentication tool. In this way, it delivers powerful conversion benefits to online merchants."
The company says the platform offers merchants the technology to learn and grow from their customers, while enabling consumers to make better purchasing decisions. Comodo says collecting and managing consumer feedback is an effective way for retailers to improve their reputation among customers, and as a security solution provider the company is in a position to help merchants deploy that kind of system.
"We get over 40,000 end users every day installing our desktop applications," says Melih Abdulhayoglu, CEO and chief security architect of Comodo. "So it made perfect sense for Comodo, because we could connect online merchants with end users."
The viral marketing approach to providing a consumer feedback platform enables online visitors to receive trustworthy and objective information about e-merchants.
While the idea of a customer feedback program is certainly not new, Comodo says UserTrust is distinguished from services like RatePoint by its free-of-charge price tag.
Since there is no fee to join the program, goes the reasoning, UserTrust can ensure there are no potential conflicts of interest among participating online business.
Though, while a free-to-join program would certainly remove the possibility of the fee guaranteeing some sort of positive rating, the user-generated nature of the feedback would seem to have already addressed that problem.
"Comodo is offering this service for free because as the world's second largest CA, our corporate charter is to provide a horizontal and vertical approach to authentication in the online world," says Shapiro. "Resellers can offer it to their customers as a recognized value-add that provides real differentiation for the reseller."
Hundreds of online businesses have already signed up for the service, says Abdulhayoglu. The UserTrust platform is one of many initiatives Comodo plans on releasing to foster the relationship between e-merchants and end users, he adds.
"Comodo will be launching other kinds of rating functional platforms for many different things," says Abdulhayoglu. "UserTrust is only the first stage. There is going to be many unique ways of utilizing the end user base and connecting them with online merchants."
