Is making it super simple for customers to engage with your brand digitally an ongoing objective? If you’re a retailer operating in Australia in 2025, it’s almost guaranteed the answer will be a resounding ‘yes’.

That’s hardly surprising, given the well documented benefits such a strategy can deliver. Chief among them is satisfying consumers’ expectations. In today’s times, efficient online ordering and returns processes, and a seamless customer experience, have ceased to be ‘nice to haves’. Rather, they’re seen as essential components of every successful retail operation.

Businesses that don’t have these basics sorted risk being perceived as outmoded, difficult to deal with and even unprofessional. That’s not the image any dynamic, on-trend retail brand is seeking to convey, particularly not at a time when competition for the consumer dollar has never been more fierce.

Risky business

But while consumers remain enamoured with the speed and convenience of online shopping – Australians spent an estimated $58.79 billion on online retail in the 12 months to September 2024, according to the NAB Online Retail Sales Index: September 2024 – they’re  no longer feeling quite as relaxed and comfortable about dispatching their personal and credit card details off into the ether as once they were.

That’s understandable, given the stream of well resourced, household name organisations that have been prey to hackers and cyber criminals in recent years. Consumers have seen trusted tech and financial institutions experience attacks resulting in the personal information of millions of customers being stolen and sold on the dark web. And it’s got them worried.

In the wake of these incidents, concerns about identity theft and fraud have become well- nigh universal. Some 87 percent of people now feel highly or somewhat concerned about the prospect of falling victim, according to a recent global consumer survey. That’s an increase of 24 per cent on the previous year’s figures.

The seemingly inexorable rise of AI is doing little to aid those concerns. We’ve all seen, read and heard about deep fake technology and the increasing ingenuity of bad actors bent on deceiving and defrauding. That’s got a whopping 89 percent of us worried about how this game changing technology might impact the security of our personal identities.

And in Australia, those concerns are greatest when we’re accessing digital banking services and shopping online.

Protecting the purchasing experience

Against that backdrop, it’s incumbent upon retailers that want to keep online sales flowing to ensure security, ease of use and privacy are incorporated into every customer experience they offer.

Introducing greater rigour into the authentication process is an effective way to do so. Whether it comes in the form of multi-factor authentication, biometrics, voice recognition, QR codes, or text and email prompts with one-time log-ins, consumers want the reassurance that only robust verification measures can provide.

Requiring your customers to prove their identity before proceeding with a purchase or interaction signals that your retail business is serious about safeguarding its network and the integrity of shoppers’ personal and financial data.

So does the adoption of a suite of passive data security measures, such as firewalls, encryption and antivirus programs, all of which can be implemented without adding friction to the online shopping experience.

Communicating the benefits to customers

Smart retailers will put these protective measures in place and ensure they stay abreast of new developments, such as digital wallets, in the rapidly evolving identity management space.

Smarter ones will talk about what they’re doing and why. Communicating clearly, in everyday language your customers can understand, is a great way to relieve their fears about identity theft and fraud and provide reassurance that safeguarding their personal and financial information is a top priority for your brand.

Maintaining a more secure shopping experience

In 2025, an outstanding digital experience will be one that’s swift, seamless – and safe. It’s what Australian consumers expect and demand when they engage with brands and businesses online. Retailers that fail to provide it may quickly find themselves bypassed, in favour of competitors that are prepared to invest in platforms and programs that deliver robust protection for consumers’ identity data.

If you’re serious about elevating your customers’ digital experience, by helping them feel supported and safe at every stage of the online purchasing journey, it’s foundation technology that should sit at the heart of your ICT stack.

Ashley Diffey is vice president for Australia and New Zealand at Ping Identity.