How Will Shop Kit Plus Users Fare With The New SSL Certification Requirements Of IE 7?

New SSL Certificate requirements could harm sales for many small business owners who cannot obtain the proper certification. But will this affect Shop Kit Plus users, whose secure pages are certified by Mals Ecommerce?

I have sent an email to Mal Stewart, owner of Mals Ecommerce, requesting information as to whether or not he plans to comply with the Extended Validation SSL Certificate requirements, as set out by SSL certificate authority leaders and Internet browser providers, who formed the Certification Authority/Browser (CA/Browser) Forum.

The introduction of EV SSL Certificates will tighten the security of Internet transactions as certificate requestors will be subject to a thorough, standardized vetting process which all issuing CAs must adhere to, according to the Certification Authority/Browser (CA/Browser) Forum.

Sounds good? On it’s face yes. According to Kristie T., work at home mom and online branding expert, alerted the WAHM world of a new requirement, that has the potential to bar small business owners from online commerce.

[The certificate will display] a green address bar to indicate that it’s “safe” for people who visit a web site. Microsoft plans to activate this green light feature in a future update of IE 7 expected in late January, according to Kristie.

This is bad for the small business, because this certificate will only be available to large businesses, according to a Yahoo news story.

Businesses that are too small or too new to be verifiable will have their address bars appear in white, instead of green. According to the yahoo story, this could result in buyers opting to purchase from “safer” sites with the green address bar instead.

Mals Ecommerce though, has been in business since 1998, possibly making it verifiable under the new standards. I’ll update you when I know more…