Rural King

How a farm & home retailer protected their brand while expanding their market.

Established in 1960, farm retailer Rural King has grown to 55 stores in seven Midwestern states, where it has a strong customer-centric reputation. As Vice President of Ecommerce, Jeremy Miller is responsible for not only growing the online wing of the business, but also for maintaining the company's consumer-friendly brand on the web.

In 2009, Jeremy was getting concerned. As problems like identity theft and malware made the news, Rural King's website was selling to people in places where they had no physical stores—and therefore no way of knowing about the company's trustworthy reputation.

As they sold to people far beyond their traditional market, Jeremy needed to communicate to new customers that ruralking.com was a safe, legitimate place to do business.

"Customers want to feel safe, otherwise they won't follow through on their purchases and enter their credit card information."

- Jeremy Miller, Vice President of Ecommerce, Rural King

New customers need familiar names.

Jeremy knew his business' growth depended on converting new online shoppers who had no idea that Rural King was a known, safe commodity. He also knew he couldn't solve this problem internally. After doing some research, he found that McAfee SECURE certification could help new visitors feel safe on ruralking.com, as well as increase the website's sales.

To test the service, he displayed the trustmark to 50% of ruralking.com's visitors. The trustmark lets customers know the site they're on is tested and certified to be safe, which gives them the information and confidence they need to buy.

After running the test, the results came in—and Jeremy was amazed. Displaying the trustmark increased online sales by 11.65%!

"That kind of impact adds up fast...You get what you pay for. The benefits of the McAfee SECURE service go well beyond the seal."

- Jeremy Miller, Vice President of Ecommerce, Rural King

Brand matters.

Jeremy says he chose McAfee SECURE certification over other services in part because of its name brand recognition. "For customers to have that kind of confidence, we knew we couldn't use just any security service," he said.