The segments titled "The Cart Whisperer" (nomoreabandonedcarts.com) serve to bring to light the motivations and behaviors behind shopping cart abandonment, says the company. In the tradition of the movie "The Horse Whisperer" and more recently the TV show "The Dog Whisperer", these videos chronicle the work of Liberty Fillmore, a man with unusual communication skills that enable him to "rescue" an abandoned shopping cart from a weed-choked parking lot and lead it back home to a shopping center.

VeriSign says this campaign is aimed at highlighting the pain companies experience as they try to understand why consumers fill online shopping carts, only to abandon them before buying due to security concerns.

"Marketing analysts may formulate sophisticated methods to decrease abandoned shopping cart rates and drive transactions, but it's as simple as security: when consumers feel protected, they're more apt to purchase," says Tim Callan, VP of SSL product marketing at VeriSign. "Our new viral campaign presents this issue within the familiar framework of today's popular culture. It's a fun and engaging way to present an issue worth thinking about and for any company doing business online, an issue worth doing something about."

Earlier this month, VeriSign says it made significant operational enhancements to the root server infrastructure.