Establishing E-commerce Trust – From Discovery through Purchase

Online shoppers require trust in e-commerce sites before buying from them, especially if site is a new store or one they have not heard of before.

Think about your own online shopping experiences and how you are influenced by various aspects of e-commerce websites that you discover, shop and for a select few, purchase from.

What are those factors that convince us it’s safe to purchase on one e-commerce site and not another?

Trust Matters

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We have all landed on websites that we would not feel safe providing personal information, especially payment information.

Does the following e-commerce site instill confidence for you?

While others, like Amazon.com,  instill confidence in us that our information will be protected and our purchase experience will be flawless, from order to shipping through to receipt of goods.

We also know that if there is a problem, we have some recourse and a process to follow to resolution and hopefully a desired outcome. We can read reviews from other users to help inform our purchase decisions.

Maximizing the Visitors to Customers Ratio Means Pulling Out all the Stops to Instill Trust

From an e-commerce business owner’s standpoint, all steps that can be taken to earn an online visitor’s trust must be taken.

Earned trust is necessary order to grow sales and profits from an online store.  The alternatives is that your visitors will purchase from other e-commerce sites that they trust.

Successful e-commerce websites earn visitor’s trust beginning at the time potential visitors first hears about an online store, through to successfully completing a purchase.

A Roadmap for a Trustworthy e-commerce Website

Every contact that a visitor has with an e-commerce business and its brand is an opportunity for that business to instill trust in potential customers. Building trust at each touchpoint in the shopper’s buying journey is the goal.

The e-commerce optimization experts KISSMetrics.com have provided a roadmap for turning more visitors into paying customers.

The First Touchpoint – When they See Your Ad 

The first touchpoint in the buryer’s journey is when they first hear about your store and/or brand. As you can relate from your own online shopping experience, many are reluctant to purchase from an e-commerce site they have never heard of before.

Advertising is often the first touchpoint and opportunity for an e-commerce store to establish trust with online shoppers.

A professionally designed display ad can go a long way towards making a great first impression. Here are some tips to consider including in your online advertising:

1. Mention the total number of orders shipped like the way McDonald’s signs have always promoted over x billion served,
2. Include the number of customer service hours,
3. Prominently list relevant phone numbers (e.g. sales, support, shipping),
4. Mention the number of customers served,
5. Select a solid domain name that avoids keywords strung together with hyphens,
6. Include “trusted since xxxx,“
7. If you are a certified reseller of an established brand,
8. If you accept PayPal as a payment method,
9. References to credible, established publications where you have been quoted or covered
10. If you are on Stella Services, mention your ranking and add a link to your ranking

Advertising space is often limited, so select from those above based on the specific needs of your target market and  context.

The Second Touchpoint – When They Enter and Browse Your Website

Once an online shopper has clicked your ad or a link to your site in the search results and have now graduated to a website visitor browsing your e-commerce site.

Here are some ways to build trust with these visitors on their way to hopefully become customers.

There are a number of items mentioned. Different subsets of these should be tested based on your website audience and the industry that your store operates in.

The best technique to find the right mix for a specific situation is to test different combinations through A/B testing. By tracking results, over time, you will be able to identify the optimal mix for your situation.

1. Imagery – use only high quality, appropriate resolution imagery,
2. Thought Leadership – demonstrating empathy and understanding of your visitors needs,
3. Reviews – highlight reviews showing that other people shop at your e-commerce site.  Be careful not to cut and paste reviews of your business from 3rd party review sites as the search engines may view this as duplicate content.
4. About – include a photo of leadership and staff. Mention other well known companies that you have worked for
5. Testimonials with faces and full names have the highest impact. One great idea from the infographic above is to embed a tweet for a more contemporary feel.
6. Credibility – If you are a member of the better business bureau, post that badge on your website and link back to your profile
   
7. Contact – make sure that your contact information clear and easy to find. Include phone, email and where appropriate, a contact form. Including at the top and bottom of each page is helpful to users by not make them have to hunt.
8. Policies – especially shipping and return policies should be prominently displayed and easy to understand
9. FAQ – Posting answers to frequently asked questions gives you a chance to answer questions that from people that will shop elsewhere if questions can be answered easily onsite.
10. Live Chat – can be used to build a relationship and trust. Live chat should not be overly intrusive which can shoe away shoppers in the same way a pushy salesperson can in a brick and mortar store.

The Third Touchpoint – When they Put Items in their Cart

At this point in their journey, the shopper has put an item(s) in their cart. They are so close to becoming a customer that you can taste it.

Clearly the visitor has established their intent to buy. Here are some tips to reassure them as they complete the checkout process without abandoning their shopping cart.

1. Mention the number of orders shipped
2. Make sure to have a secure checkout using only an encrypted connection. This requires the installation of an SSL certificate.
3. List phone numbers to call to answer any questions that may arise during the checkout process
4. Show an estimated delivery date instead of just a ship date. This will help shoppers where time is of the essence.
5. Specify shipped from location as many buyers will want to know where there product is being shipped from
6. Security badges such as McAfee Secure, TRUSTe, Trustwave, GeoTrust, Norton Secured, C-O-M-O-D-O EV SSL Site and more.

   

Conclusion

Establishing e-commerce trust removes barriers to online  sales. Think of the sites that you are most comfortable shopping on. Strive to model your e-commerce store after the websites that you shop on most frequently.

Reflect on all the touchpoints that your favorite e-commerce brands had with you that influenced you to click a an advertisement or link in the search results, visit the website, put items in your cart and then checkout.

For me, follow-up emails with links to obtain shipping status are an expectation of best in class e-commerce transactions.

We appreciate any and all feedback. Share your e-commerce trust building tips the comments.