We FeeFighters help SMB's save money on credit card processing. We do need some somewhat sensitive information to run our reverse auctions, like the amount of credit card receipts a company expects. We're going through the process of TRUSTe and BBB certification. It's not really much of a process, really, you pay ~$1000 they ask a few questions and you can put the seal on your site... As we know seeing what happens in the credit card processing business, there are many companies that have A+ ratings that treat their customers like crap. Until a few months ago, Ritz Carlton, Disney, and Wolfgang Puck had F ratings but Hamas had an A grade.
(see here: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/business-bureau-ritz-carlton/story?id=12151154)
We're doing the TRUSTe certification, and they only asked a few cursory questions... but they present case studies with a significant bump in conversion rate (trustguard has a somewhat hilarious link on their site that says "Trustguard increases conversion rate 60%). I personally have never given any credence to a security seal on a website.
Have you seen conversion rate increases due to the presence of a security, BBB, or Trust seal? How do people feel about the seals generally?
We had tested the 'hacker safe' logo ( that mcaffee since bought and renamed ). Depending on where it was placed in the order process ( it was a multiple step process ), it either had no noticeable effect to a 15% conversion boost.
For customers outside the US, neither had any impact at all, where we tested them. For the hacker safe logo, it had the biggest effect when placed near product selection and when the user was entering credit card information.
I would suggest doing some serious a/b testing to figure out where the logos should go if you get them as from my experience, placement is everything.