How to Make Your Ecommerce Store Appear Trustworthy to Customers

When it comes to making sales online, winning your potential customer’s trust can be the most important factor. Online shoppers will not purchase from stores that make them feel uncertain or unsafe. That’s why it is so vital to win your customers’ trust right off the bat from your online store.

Trust is especially important in ecommerce, where customers have limited ways to experience the product before purchasing. According to a study conducted in 2017, 49% of people who don’t partake in online shopping avoid it because they do not trust online shops. Cybercrime and malicious hackers are a major concern for potential online shoppers, with 52% of global internet users more concerned and aware of their online privacy compared to a year ago. Today, 12% of global internet users reportedly try to make fewer purchases online.

So, how can we assuage the fears of our potential customers by making them feel safe and comfortable to make purchases from your trustworthy online store? In this article, we will discuss precisely how to build trust between you and your target audience with the use of a few simple and proven methods in building trust. To learn more, let’s keep on reading.

1. Prioritize Cyber Security

Your customer’s privacy and the security of their data is something that they all highly value. Ecommerce stores require their customers to provide them with their highly personal details, such as their name, address, email, contact, and banking information-all of which are considered to be highly sensitive details that a customer must entrust to you.

Data protection and possible customer data mismanagement is a critical issue in electronic commerce. Your customers may be harboring fears that their data will be shared with other entities and businesses that will then use their information for whatever purpose it can serve. If you want your customers to trust you enough to hand over their data, you will have to put certain security measures into place to safeguard your customers and their information.

For you to fully gain and deserve the trust of your customers, you must adopt key security measures to protect your website and the data of the people who come to make transactions there. Two such measures are acquiring an SSL Certificate and adopting two-factor authentication for your site. Platforms like Shopify are already considered secure, and all Shopify sites come with a built-in SSL Certificate, which is a network protocol for browser authentication and works to encrypt client and server communication.

Aside from the SSL Certificate, there are other security measures to ensure customer and store data stays safe. Don’t forget to make sure that all your important security measures are up to date and to inform your customers that all the necessary steps to protect them have been taken.

2. Use Product Testimonials

Most consumers today do a lot of research before making a product purchase, and testimonials are a powerful and moving tool that you need to leverage from your online store. Feedback is very important, for your shop and your customers and this is because your potential customers trust each and they value the testimonies of verified users and buyers of your products.

Testimonials help you to gain the trust of your customers from your online store, and because you are establishing trust, this makes it easier to increase conversions. Customers are out there reading product reviews to appease certain anxieties that they have about your product and shop, so reviews that specifically target your potential customers’ concerns regarding the quality, function, and effectiveness of your products should be treated as a valuable asset in converting your potential customers into your buyers.

By visiting your online store, customers are already showing an interest in your products. When you share testimonials from your happy customers, this can act as a nudge for your potential customers to go ahead and buy your products.

You need customer reviews and testimonials and the easiest way of obtaining them is to ask for them. This can be automated as part of the process of delivering and confirming that an item has been received by your customers.

3. Humanize the Shopping Experience

As discussed above, people trust people, so avoid washing your brand out of its humanity by making it too technical, generic, or anonymous. Shoppers are naturally drawn to businesses where they can associate the products and the services provided to them with real faces and real emotions. If you can put a face to your business, or include the faces of your staff to your live chat function, your office pet, or maybe even the faces of your models, then people are more likely to feel connected to your online store because it contains humanizing aspects or qualities.

Websites that are all words feel more distant. People need to know that there are real, live people behind these sites and ecommerce businesses. Including pictures of your staff, even one group photo can create a feeling of trust and credibility for your potential customer. If you are running a one-person show, including a winning photo of yourself in your About page will show clients that you are a real person, which will boost their trust in you.

People also love stories. If you can tell the story of your business or the success stories of the people who use your products, then this can appeal to your potential customers’ emotions, making you and your ecommerce business more relatable.

4. Inform Your Customers

When it comes to today’s online shoppers, information is everything. It is your job to educate your customers about the products that they are buying, and your duty to provide accurate product descriptions, shipping information, returns, and to provide post-purchase support to address any additional queries your customers may have.

It is also your duty as a seller to make sure that you provide all the pertinent information about your products so as not to cause any unpleasant surprises that may lead to negative reviews on product quality or seller mishandling.

Your customers deserve to know exactly what they will be getting. When it comes to product information, the more pertinent product details you can provide, the better.

Shipping information and delivery times are also relevant to online shoppers. Online stores with a dedicated Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page are also working with an advantage by providing customers with ready answers to the most frequent queries customers have on your online store. Your FAQ page will also save you a lot of time in answering customer questions.

5. Don’t Forget About Customer Service

Your customers are the life’s blood of your online store. Customers are the focal point of your success, and one of the ways to win their trust is to make connecting easy and problem-free.

Remember that your customers will often have a question or two before coming to a purchase decision on your online store. Leaving them in the dark with unresolved product and shipping question is a sure-fire way to get them to click off your site in search of an online store with a better, more seemingly trustworthy customer services.

Here are some steps you can take to ensure great customer service and support that will win the trust of your customers:

Offer Live Chat- Offering live chat can get your customers’ problems solved quickly and easily. Live chat is starting to become the most preferred platform for getting in touch with businesses because it is convenient and it spares everyone involved the awkward phone call conversations.

Phone Support- Some customers may still want to call in, especially when it comes to more serious matters, especially in dealing with refunds and returns.

Email Support- Email support remains a favorite among online shoppers and online shop owners because it is an easy and standard form of communication. Make sure to have your email information in an easy to find a place on your shop and your contact page.

Back to You

For all ecommerce websites, gaining your customers’ trust is absolutely vital to your success. Customers are, after all, the beating heart of any business, and establishing trust between you and them is the key to gaining more sales and loyal customers.

With our five simple tips, we hope that you can transform any uncertain customer into a loyal customer in no time at all!

Get in Touch

Establishing trust can be a challenge, but with our tips, you’ll be able to create a trustworthy ecommerce business that thrives on loyal customers. What are your thoughts on our article on how to build a trustworthy ecommerce store? We would like to know. At Ecommerce Pro, we love to discuss the future plans of your online business ventures and to share practical solutions to help you meet your ecommerce and dropshipping business goals. If you are and you have a project in mind, please feel free to start a conversation with today!

Originally published at https://ecommercepro.com on January 12, 2020.