Starting an eCommerce business could be an easy task but sustaining it takes efforts. People would not just buy from you looking at an attractive website name or great products. You will have to make them trust you so that they buy from you. Gaining someone’s trust is the most challenging task in the digital marketplace.
Here are top eCommerce trust factors that can encourage more customers to purchase from your eCommerce store.
Promote your testimonials and customer reviews
Your prospective customers are more likely to trust what other people have to say about your products and services rather than you talking about it. A study has confirmed that 55% customers check for product reviews online before they purchase. Therefore, showing testimonials and customer feedback on your eCommerce store is a great way to make your customers trust you and encourage them to shell out their money.
Build an emotional appeal
The most effective way to create an emotional appeal is to have a copy that reflects the benefits of the products rather than technical jargons that just elaborate the features. Your product descriptions should alleviate the fear or apprehensiveness among the customers and reassure them that your product would help them troubleshoot their problems effectively. If you succeed in creating this feeling, your customers are sure to trust you and buy from you.
Your website should be user-friendly and designed in such a way that it facilitates quick navigation without any difficulties. This would make your customers like your website and ultimately contribute to trust building.
Website security is a must
You cannot build trust or make people buy from your store without installing HTTPs. You can purchase SSL Certificates from Comodo that help you in encrypting the data transmitted between the browser and server. Moreover, it also helps in ranking your website in SERP. That is an additional advantage that would inculcate trust in your customers.
With these security certificates, you can also display your trust badge. Your customers will not share their financial details at the checkout without checking these parameters. Ultimately, it will lead to increase in cart abandonment rate and dwindling sales. You would definitely not want that!
Offer genuine discounts
This is one of the most important points to remember. You should not mislead the customers when it comes to discounts and incentives. Be transparent and offer genuine discounts or giveaways. In other words, promise what you can deliver. Do not create bogus deals under the pretext of increasing conversions.
Payment gateways should be protected
Hackers are always looking for vulnerabilities in eCommerce store. Your payment gateway should be protected from such cyber criminals. Make sure your customers trust the payment gateways that you offer as this is the zone most prone to objection from customers. It is not enough that you support a range of payment gateways; security is equally important.
DigitalGlobal.com is one of the finest new ecommerce portals I’ve come accross. It has everything that defines a good store. You should pay the website a visit and learn a few things from them.
Show the shipping charges at the outset
Many eCommerce stores display the shipping charges at the end when the customer is about the confirm the purchase. This is not a good practice as it hampers the trust in your customers. You should inform the customers about the shipping or delivery charges at the outset itself when the customer is still checking the product specifications. Once the customer proceeds to check out and is not ready to pay for the extra shipping cost, it will lead to a lost sale or abandoned cart.
Say for example: If a customer makes a purchase of USD130 and your store offers free shipping at orders above USD200, mention it so that they can modify their order and avail the free shipping offer.
Show the prices in the customer’s local currency
You should display the prices according to the geolocation of the customer. This is better than showing a drop-down menu to the customers. You should include all the currencies that your stores accept and have a provision to auto-calculate the currency exchange rates.
Employ personalization tactics
Personalization is not just about showing the first name of the customer. It is about showing the customers the products that they may like according to their previous purchases and their browse history. You can send them personalized emails too in case they have abandoned their cart and encourage them to complete the purchase.
Automated email marketing works the best in this aspect. It allows the marketers of eCommerce stores to target the customers according to their buyer persona and buyer’s journey. It helps in nurturing the prospective customers and increasing the sales.
Create a sense of urgency
Have limited time offers to create a sense of urgency and prompt the customers to take immediate action. This trick comes handy during the holiday season by instilling the fear of missing out. (FOMO)
Have a referral program
Incentivize your customers by having a referral program and leverage on the word of mouth marketing. This will help you in getting more customers as well as building trust with the existing ones.
Have a fast-loading website
If your website loads slowly, it negatively impacts your brand reputation. Your customers would automatically trust you a bit more if you have a fast-loading website. Also, you should have a mobile-responsive website with AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages).
Also, don’t overuse youtube videos on your landing page. Try this online video converter and create smaller and compressed version of your YouTube videos to use on your landing pages.
Maintain social proof
Social media presence has become inevitable if you want your customers to trust you. Interact with them on platforms like Facebook and Twitter and offer freebies or giveaways through contests. This will increase your brand visibility and build trust with your customers, all at the same time.
Wrapping Up
Without winning the trust of your customers, you will not be able to retain your eCommerce business. Brands that have achieved mastery in building trust would hardly have to see a customer leave from the website without making a purchase.
Follow these simple tips for your eCommerce store and lay the foundation for a lasting relationship that will ultimately help you garner more customers.
