digitalv - 6:19 pm on Mar 9, 2011 (gmt 0)

I've never understood paying for those "security seals". Has anyone noticed that they really increase sales? I could make one up with Photoshop and 95% of customers would never know the difference.

My experience has been that yes, they actually DO increase sales - however my experience has been that the paid ones like McAfee and TrustE don't have any measurable difference than the free ones like UpFront and HonestyInCommerce.

Don't just make a fake seal and think it's going to have any effect, it won't. It's not the physical presence of a seal that helps, it's the whole "third party validation" that makes it count. The fact that some third party says "this site is OK" is what gets the conversion rate up. When all other factors are equal, consumers will buy from the site with the trust badge before they'll buy from the one without it.