Earlier, we encouraged you to think about how your customers may respond to your website. As you make purchases on-line, you'll learn more about what you like and don't like. Keep those things in mind as you develop and grow your on-line store. This section, though, is devoted to those things that you need to consider when making an on-line purchase.

Before you get to the purchase stage, you may have done some on-line research to determine which products were right for you. As you saw earlier, that's a great use of the Internet. So we'll assume that you have selected your product and are ready to make the purchase. You may have some choice about which companies to buy the product from, though. Obviously, you'll consider things like price and company reputation as you make your choice. But what features should you be concerned about with respect to their on-line store?

Most importantly, you should be completely convinced that your purchase is secure. Identity theft has become a major issue in the United States and around the world. Internet encryption

technologies can help to maintain the privacy of the transaction, making it very difficult or impossible for criminals to obtain your credit card number and other identifying information. Icons in your web browser will indicate that you are on a secure server. Internet Explorer, for example, shows a locked padlock in the bottom right-hand corner. If you roll your curser over the lock, it will tell you what type of encryption is being used. For example, it may say "SSL Secured (128 Bit)." This simply describes the type of security offered by that server.