GDPR And The Effects on eCommerce

Data protection is essential for eCommerce. Many online sellers are susceptible to many cases of fraud and others that can disrupt business, and even potentially ruin them. GDPR will be coming into effect across Europe from May 2018.

GDPR is the General Data Privacy Regulation. First established in April 2016, its aim is to protect data as well as show how it should be handled. It does not directly discuss eCommerce, though it will be one of the big beneficiaries from GDPR.

GDPR has been brought in to protect Europeans and the data that they transmit and receive. In broad terms, GDPR covers any site or data as long as they involve Europeans in some way, as well people who are doing business in Europe.

What does GDPR mean for eCommerce businesses?

While GDPR will affect eCommerce, how it could affect online sellers remains to be seen. GDPR seems to favor much larger businesses than SMEs. Many SMEs might find it hard to comply, since it requires much record keeping, something which SMEs with few people involved can manage.

There is so much that GDPR covers. At its heart is data privacy and protection. This is both for the consumers as well as sellers. Consent from the consumers must be clear. So that means there shouldn’t be automatically filled out consent boxes, for instance. Consumers should be able to decide when and how they would give their consent to data transfer.

Data that should be given should be ones that are only pertinent to a transaction. That means it should only be data that is needed for it. Unnecessary data that has nothing to do with a transaction should be left out. This goes back then to the issue of consent—data should only be one that a consumer or seller wishes to share.

For many consumers, having a site that is GDPR compliant would naturally be considered safe. With so much data now being transferred online, there is also the possibility of data being used in the wrong way as well as it being intercepted. Sites that aren’t GDPR compliant may make consumers in Europe nervous.

There are also sites that are now becoming GDPR compliant. Google and Facebook for instance are now making their sites as well as activities compliant to it. Shopify and MailChimp as well are becoming compliant. The need to be compliant to GDPR is great, especially for sites that are being used in Europe.

With 2018 near, GDPR will become a big issue in Europe. Sites that aren’t compliant yet should make theirs so if they want to continue doing business in Europe. Data protection is very important, especially today when there are sophisticated ways to get it.

There are also incredibly severe punishments in place for failure to be GDPR compliant which should be all the motivation a business needs in order to comply.

If you want to find out how you can ensure your business is GDPR compliant, find out about appropriate solutions through Distology.

Have you heard of GDPR already?  Is your business compliant already? Let us know in the comments down below.

If you liked this article and would like to engage with other small business entrepreneurs selling on marketplaces, join our . You can also find us on , , , and or sign up for our newsletter below.