Have you ever gone to website, added an item to your cart, but decided not to purchase because you didn’t trust the site? That happened to me the other day while I was looking for some cheap t-shirts. I came across a site that claimed to have plain t-shirts for as low as $.99 a piece. I stayed on the checkout page for about 30 seconds before deciding to exit out of the site and continue my search. I then Googled “how to trust a website” and came across an article posted on Microsoft. The article gave a couple pointers including:
- Confirm that the web address begins with HTTPS
- Look for a lock in the address bar
- Check the seal of approval
While each of those elements are great, they don’t really seem to tackle the core issues of trust. Last year the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) reported receiving over 262k complaints and losses of $781,841,611. Clearly checking to see if there’s a ‘padlock’ on a website doesn’t prevent people from becoming victim to online fraud.
Online trust has evolved into much more than icons and simple seals of approval. In fact, a recent Gallup Poll found that only 6% of online shoppers trust e-commerce stores with their personal information. Six percent! That should raise some major alarms if you own an e-commerce site.
Here are 4 ways to bolster online trust on your e-commerce site and improve sales figures:
1. Make your Company Information Accessible
It takes a lot of trust for most consumers to share their personal information with websites. Online purchases aren’t a one way transaction. Both parties need to know who each other is and build some level of trust. Sharing your company’s personal information is a great way to build a special rapport with your visitors. The more transparent, the better. I recommend including:
- Information about your management team with photos and links to social network profiles
- Details regarding billing, guarantees, returns, refunds, exchanges, and delivery
- Business licenses your company has obtained
- Your company’s address, phone number, and email(s)
- Awards you’ve received throughout the year (if applicable)
- Company history overview (was it purchased, sold, etc?)
Remember online transactions aren’t made face-to-face, so you’ve really got to rely on your company information to build that level of trust.
2. Use Social Signals to Your Advantage
Social signals indicate the existence or occurrence of people using, talking, or sharing a product, service, or idea. Basecamp (a task management application) has done an incredible job of using social signals to promote online trust. Their homepage states in big bolded black font “Last year alone, Basecamp helped over 285,000 companies Finnish more than 2,000,000 projects.”
This gives visitors the assurance that others are using and trusting Basecamp’s services so they should too. Use social signals as a means to give your visitors a ‘me too’ attitude.
3. Freshen Up Your Web Design
Wait, web design impacts online trust? Yes, yes it does. Shopping online is a lot like shopping in brick and mortar stores. Think about your own experiences. If you walk into a store that smells, has 1980’s decorum (unintentionally), and a weird product layout, how likely are you to purchase from them? And how likely are you to purchase from a site that has an awkward layout, poor navigation, and pixelated photos? Chances are, you’ll probably find a competitor with a better design who makes the shopping experience more comfortable.
Seth Godin, master of e-commerce and conversion, wrote recently, “Graphics: what do you look like, what does it remind me of? With so few clues online, we read an enormous amount into every pixel, every typeface…”
4. Write a Privacy Policy that Actually Makes Sense
If you’re like most consumers, you probably don’t read many privacy policies because they’re difficult understand, long, and contain a lot of technical information that doesn’t feel relevant. Guess what? Your privacy policy doesn’t have to be boring and jargon-laden. In fact you could turn your privacy policy into a video or an infographic that highlights key points to consumers. The point is to provide information thats relevant and connects with consumers.