If you recently started an eCommerce store, plan to soon, or have been running one for a while without getting the success you want, it’s important to remember how critical trust is online.
When people can’t see you and your team or your wares face to face and have to trust that you’re a legitimate business selling authentic items, you need to make them feel safe enough to give out their personal and financial details.
There are many ways you can help make shoppers feel comfortable with this, though, so read on for some steps you can take over the coming months to boost trust and sales.
Ensure Your Website Looks Professional and Works Well
Start by ensuring you have a website that looks professional and works well for shoppers. It needs to be user-friendly so people can clearly see how to get from one page to another and find what they’re looking for. It needs to have a layout that doesn’t look too cluttered with text or graphics and showcases consistent branding throughout.
Use an easy-to-read font in a decent size, add quality images and videos to showcase your wares or to give people insights into who you are and what you and your team can offer, and take steps to get each page loading quickly. No one wants to wait for data to load.
Pay attention to your cart and checkout processes, too. Don’t make it hard for people to add things to their shopping cart and finalize transactions. It’s best to make guest checkout possible without complicated logins. Plus, if your site isn’t mobile-friendly, now is the time to work on this side of things. An increasing number of consumers use their smartphones and tablets to browse and buy goods today, so you need a website with an automatic resize function or to use a platform specially formatted for mobile views.
Include Enough Information
Next, take the time to include plenty of information on your website and other online pages. For people to trust that your business is safe to deal with, they need to have a good idea about the brand and the products or services you sell. You need to provide details about shipping costs and timeframes, returns and warranties, and any deals you’re offering.
In particular, ensure customers can easily find contact details for your business. This way, they can get in touch if they have questions to ask, need further information, or just want to talk to someone in real-time to feel safe that you’re operating a genuine venture. You need to make an email address and, where possible, a phone number accessible. Live chat options are also helpful, as are responding to queries on social media sites ASAP.
Make Credibility Signs Obvious
It’s also vital to make signs of credibility evident for shoppers on your website and other digital touchpoints, such as your social media pages, e-newsletters, email signature, and the like. For example, you can add graphics that show your membership in relevant business groups or industry memberships. Upload logos, site seals, certifications related to your payment processor, SSL certificate, the types of credit cards you accept, membership in things like the Google Trusted program or the Green Business Bureau, etc.
Plus, if you have a trademarked name, don’t forget to add this mark to your digital spaces. This helps people feel you’re operating a well-established, trusted business. If you don’t currently have any trademarks, it’s worth spending the time to investigate how to trademark a business name so you can get this intellectual property (and any others you might need, such as patents, trade secrets, or copyright) all sorted.
Furthermore, be sure to add plenty of positive testimonials about your business and wares to your website and other online collateral, as well as product or service reviews. You can link to places where the media have mentioned you, too, as this also helps people feel more trusting of your brand.
Use a Secure Payment Processor
Lastly, take care choosing the payment processor you use for your website and any other online places where you sell goods digitally. Consumers may be ready to buy from you but then notice that you’re using a payment processor they’ve never heard of or one that takes them away from your site and to a third-party processor. In turn, they may start to feel worried.
To build trust so people feel comfortable enough to give out their sensitive financial and personal details, use a payment service that has been around for a long time and has a good reputation. For example, you might use PayPal, Apple Pay, BPAY, a bank’s payment option, Square, Stripe, or others. It’s also a good idea to pick a solution that doesn’t store payment information and has a strong focus on cybersecurity.
Following all of these tips will help you to build trust significantly on your digital platforms. In turn, you should notice that your sales revenue increases nicely, and you get more repeat business and referrals, too.