A lot of consumers don’t trust online retailers. And that’s likely hurting merchants’ bottom lines.

The majority of U.S. consumers aren’t confident that online retailers are effectively safeguarding their data. For example, 40% of consumers have not completed a purchase on the web due to fears about fraud or the safety of their personal information, according to an exclusive Internet Retailer survey of 2,000 U.S. consumers conducted by Bizrate Insights. And 70% are concerned about fraud or their personal information when shopping online.

There may be good reasons for shoppers’ concerns: nearly 28% of consumers have been victims of e-commerce-related fraud, the survey finds, and 68% of consumers said fear of fraud or the safety of their personal information has influenced their decisions to make a purchase online.

In fact, the number of consumers who are victims of fraud is rising. 16.7 million U.S. consumers were victims of identity fraud last year, according to Javelin Strategy & Research’s “2018 Identity Fraud Study,” which is an 8.4% jump…

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