‘Safe’ route for e-shoppers

Securicor, the leading security firm, is hoping to leverage its offline brand values with its first major Internet venture, SafeDoor.

The service is designed to keep credit card and personal details private, helping Internet users get over their qualms about e-shopping.

Shoppers register their personal and credit card details just once with SafeDoor (www.safedoor.co.uk). They can then shop safely through SafeDoor’s registered retailer sites.

Free to consumers, the service claims to be “committed” to concealing users’ personal and financial details from all its retail partners. It is protected by an array of “leading-edge” firewalls and all sensitive data is encrypted in the SafeDoor database. Even its own call centre staff are denied access to customers’ credit card numbers.

SafeDoor expects to have a wide-ranging retailer network signed up very soon, with 40 retail partners operating by the end of March and 100 by the end of the year. Partners already include 21store.com, Kitbag.com, ThinkNatural.com and 101CD.com.

Research from MORI shows that of the estimated 17 million people using the Internet in the UK, 70 per cent are still not shopping online. According to the National Consumer Council, 46 per cent of Internet users believe the release of credit card details is the main reason why online shopping is risky.

Securicor, which is 60 years old, has operations in 35 countries and an annual turnover of more than &£1.4bn. Its business is now divided into three divisions – security, distribution and communications.