Thinking Outside the Box

Assurance of secure shopping. Several seals or accreditation systems (such as BBDO, Excite Secure Shopping Seal, Compuserve Certified Shopping) are competing to become the standard that imparts instant credibility to an e-commerce site, just as the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval has done in print ads. Until there is one standard, Web sites must provide their own clear statements of security and fraud-protection measures to allay the fears of new online shoppers.