There's a lot of confusion about "secure wholesale sites", so today I want to give you all of the details. 

When you visit any website you can look at the url web address area and see if the address starts with http:// or https://:

Sites that start with "https://" are secure (the "s" means "secure").  You will also notice that secure websites will feature a closed lock icon on most browsers:

The exact style of lock icon is different depending if you are using Google Chrome, Firefox, Bing, Brave, etc.  On Google Chrome, as of 2022, the lock is solid gray color:

Regardless of the browser, you should see a lock icon.  Its possible some browsers may use a shield icon instead, but it will be in the exact same spot.

Here is an example of a website that is NOT secure:

WHAT EXACTLY IS A "SECURE SITE"?

A secure site is a website that has an "SSL Certificate" installed.  The purpose of the SSL is to make the site safe, meaning it cannot be hacked.  It also means that your payment data, password and other information.  More importantly, a secure site also means that the business cannot SEE your credit card number because when you process your payment, it is done using "full encryption".   Dishonest / scam companies never use Secure sites because they WANT your credit card information for nefarious reasons.  This is why it is super important to only make purchases with secure websites. 

CAN A COMPANY LIE AND SAY THEIR SITE IS SECURE WHEN IT'S NOT?

Yes and no.  A company can "say" their site is secure and they can post an image like this one:

However, there is no way for the company to add the "s" to https:// and there is no way for an unsecure website to display the locked icon in the URL area.  The lock only appears on actually-secure sites that have an SSL certificate installed and the "s" is only added after http when the SSL installation is complete.  There is no way for any company to fake those two things. 

WHY CAN I GO TO "HTTP" IF "HTTPS" IS SECURE?

As mentioned, our website here at BigBrandWholesale.com is secure, so our actual url is https://BigBrandWholesale.com, however you can still type https://BigBrandWholesale.com, into the url bar and it will still bring you to our site.   However, you will notice, if you go to http://BigBrandWholesale.com you will automatically, instantly be redirected to https://BigBrandWholesale.com. Go ahead and give it a try! Watch the URL change from http to https, it's pretty cool! 

WHY ARE SOME WHOLESALE SITES NOT SECURE?

Well... I don't have a conclusive answer because there is no legitimate reason to not secure your businesses website to protect your customers.  However, here's a few possible reasons:

• Laziness
• The business doesn't truly care about their customers
• SSL Certificates have to be renewed on a regular basis.  If the business forgot to renew it, it will expire. 
• Complete dishonesty because the site is actually a scam, designed to get credit card info so they can steal your identity or fraudulently use your card
• The business doesn't plan on staying open.  Their goal is to gather data then close. 
• The business is flat broke and can't afford it

IN CLOSING

ONLY order through secure sites.