Amid the build-up to Christmas, a survey commissioned by VeriSign finds that 85 percent of online shoppers maintain that trust in a site is the most important issue when online shopping.

Conducted on behalf of the Internet infrastructure service provider by YouGov in October, the survey found that out of almost 2000 adults, just seven percent believed that competitive pricing was the most important concern.

Eighty-one percent of the respondents assured that they would end a transaction if they believed a site to be insecure.

Worryingly, however, a quarter of respondents said they would expect a minimum of a 30 percent discount to persuade them to use an unprotected site.

“With major investment in retail sites and the arrival of malls such as Westfield, online retailers need to do more to show customers that they can trust them,” commented the director of identity and authentication services at VeriSign in EMEA, Mike Davies.

“The Web is facing even stronger competition from the modern shopping mall, and shoppers concerned about security online have better facilities than ever before to attract them away from the Web, they will put their money where their trust is.”

The survey also found that while 66 percent of respondents looked for a ‘lock’ icon in the address bar, 41 percent looked for ‘https://’ in the address bar. Only 24 percent regularly checked the site for a green address bar.