One of your most urgent tasks as an ecommerce merchant is to establish trust. In most cases, you will only have a few seconds to accomplish this. As the old saying goes, first impressions really are everything. When your site loads into a browser, it must immediately convey professionalism and solvency. Further, it should assure your customers will get the products they order in a timely fashion and you’ll be there to make it right if something goes wrong.
Here’s how to make your ecommerce store trustworthy.
1. Site Design
A cohesive design with a professional look says you’re proud of what you have to offer and you’re likely to be there to support the people who buy from you. Standardize your fonts and image sizes so your look is nice and uniform. Go with original photography whenever you can, as stock images tend to look cookie cutter and can diminish your credibility. Additionally, simple is always best. Don’t make your customer work too hard to take in your offerings. Your copy should be crisp, succinct, to the point and grammatically perfect. Typos and poor grammar mark you as someone who isn’t concerned with details.
2. Reviews and Testimonials
As you might expect, new customers tend to be risk averse. Yes, you have exactly what they’re looking for at a very competitive price, but how do they know you’ll deliver? Rather than relying upon telling your own story to get your sincerity across, let previously satisfied shoppers do it for you. Solicit feedback from your customers and feature it prominently on your site. When potential buyers see others have had positive experiences, they’ll feel more confident about giving you an opportunity to create one for them.
3. Trust Seals and Logos
SSL certificates and PCI compliance go a long way toward establishing trust in the minds of online shoppers. Depending upon the agencies with which you work in this regard, you’ll be granted the use of their “secure transaction” logos and indicators. These should be prominently featured throughout your site—and especially on your payment pages. In addition to these logos, having your own professionally designed logo says you put time and thought into the nature of your enterprise and are likely to be conducting business in an honest manner. The better ecommerce platform builders like Shopify offer a free logo creator to help you in this regard.
4. Payment Gateways
You’ve done all the above to establish trust with your customers, then when it’s time to pay, you send them to a third party to provide payment information. What’s the point of going to all of that effort, if you’re giving them someplace else to go when it’s time to pony up the dough? Now they must figure out whether they can trust this new entity on top of all of the other insecurities they’re harboring about shopping online. Cart abandonment becomes highly likely at this point.
5. About Us Page
While the customer testimonials we suggested above will help you convert shoppers into buyers, people will still want to know who you are, where you came from and how to get in touch with you, if something goes awry. Your About Us page can accomplish all of this while simultaneously putting a human face on your business. In addition to telling your story, provide contact information so visitors can have an address, a phone number and a name.
With these elements in place, you can make your ecommerce site more trustworthy. There are many other things you can do as well, including offering an equitable return policy and reasonable shipping charges (free options are even better).