Research Results Around Transaction Uplifts from Extended Validation SSL

Jun 25, 2018 Tim Callan Introduction-To

It stands to reason that consumers would be more inclined to engage in transactions and share confidential information on a site where the green address bar is available. The green address bar is a visible indicator of the identity of the organization that operates a site, and knowing that a site is legitimate and not a criminal fake is a source of reassurance for consumers.

But how do we quantify the level of transaction increase to be expected? That's an important question for site operators considering a financial justification of EV SSL over OV or DV certificates. We recently came across a DigiCert white paper that describes the results of green address bar research. A user experience research firm called Tech-Ed ran hundreds of active internet users through scenarios where they were asked to share information with sites that did and did not display the Extended Validation green address bar.

The results were pretty strong:

100% prefer to do business with a site using an EV SSL certificate
67% would avoid buying from unfamiliar sites that do not have EV SSL certificates

When asked about using credit cards on sites with and without EV certificates, respondents said,

Green address bar present Green address bar NOT present Would most likely enter details 87% 28% Somewhat likely to enter details 10% 35% Probably wouldn't enter details 3% 19% Definitely wouldn't enter details 0% 18%

These results are a pretty strong indication that site visitors who see green address bars are more likely to complete transactions than those who do not.