Building consumer trust in your product is one of the hardest parts of building an e-commerce brand. The internet is full of products for sale, and to say the least, it’s a mixed bag. E-commerce sites range from great products to great service to poor quality, misleading products or outright scams.
New brands need to remember that many customers have been burned before and are naturally skeptical when shopping on a new site. You don’t have the benefit of brick-and-mortar stores where people can visit in person, hold the product in their hands, and talk to actual people.
Instead, you should find ways to build trust just by being online. Listed below are five useful tips.
1. Creating a safe and secure payment process
The goal of gaining customer trust is to convert site visitors into sales, and requires people to provide their payment details. So you need to make the payment process safe, secure and trustworthy for new customers visiting your site.
While they may be willing to accept a poor quality product and go through the return process, they will quickly shy away if they think there’s a chance their personal data or credit card information could be stolen.
By using a reputable payment service provider (PSP) or shopping cart software, you can build customer trust in your checkout process. These typically come with multiple payment options and trusted seals or guarantees to boost customer confidence.
Multiple payment options help demonstrate that you are a legitimate practice with the added bonus of allowing customers to pay using their preferred method.
While we focus on improving customer trust, gaining trust from your vendors and suppliers is just as important. Modern companies use a comprehensive accounts payable platform to stay on top of their accounts payable. These make it easy and secure to automate bill payments and often come with additional features to combine or split payments, helping you maximize your cash flow.
2. Professional web design
Poorly designed websites increase mistrust among users. This includes the look and feel of the site as well as:
position
Your site should be well organized and easy to use. Visitors who struggle to navigate your site and find what they are looking for may not take your company seriously. E-commerce brands must create the best user experience possible, offering products in a well-organized manner with accurate and up-to-date information.
Maintenance
Outdated information, broken links, slow load times, poorly written copy, and low-quality images all give the impression that a site is not run or maintained by a serious business. Running a website is an ongoing process. You must constantly optimize the site, making sure it performs at its peak.
Security
Your website should be secure for customers to use. At a minimum, this should include the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate indicated by the “s” in “https” at the beginning of the URL and the lock icon next to the URL. An SSL certificate verifies the identity of a website and lets users know that any communication or data transmitted from their browser to the website’s server is encrypted. Most people who use a website don’t know exactly what an SSL certificate is, but if they visit your website and their browser warns them that the website is not secure, they won’t want to spend money there.
3. Make customers see people, not just the brand
Customers trust people before brands. A great way to increase consumer trust is to show the people behind your business. You can do this with a detailed “About Us” page featuring you and your employees. Customers will trust you more if they have faces and names to look at than just a faceless corporate body.
You can also provide clear links to your company’s social media accounts, adding more legitimacy to your business. Additionally, you should show visitors any positive feedback from past customers on your site or, even better, on your social media channels. Good word of mouth on social media helps customers see reviews from real people rather than a name or anonymous 5-star review on a website.
Finally, use direct human language when dealing with your customers instead of corporate sales talk. Instead of copying and pasting answers to each question, try to personalize each interaction.
4. Put time and effort into your customer service
This brings us to another important factor in increasing trust in your company – great customer service. Nothing shows that customers trust you more than getting in and out of service.
While technology is becoming more integrated into customer service through the use of automated chatbots and email responses, many people still prefer to speak with a real person. A great way to increase consumer trust is by giving them a real person to talk to when they have questions or clear up any issues.
While you can’t recreate an in-person experience online, you can try your best to provide a polite and knowledgeable person to talk to if help is needed.
5. Highlight your return policy
Returns are critical to customer trust, especially for new products that lack the recognition and reputation of established names. Someone is more likely to buy your products if they know you’re offering them a return that will make them want to try your products for the first time. If you are not happy with the product, you can always get your money back.
Make your return policies clear on your site so people know they can try your products risk-free.
Trust is fundamental to sales conversions.
When starting a business, you need to find ways to differentiate yourself from bad actors and build customer trust. First impressions are critical; You can only launch your product once. So take the time to think about how you can prove consumer trust and your company’s legitimacy to new customers.
