Internet retailing is one of the fastest-growing markets; hence, the potential to grow your e-commerce store is immense. Here are the top 5 ways to build a trustworthy online store to improve customer trust in your e-commerce properly and honestly.
Online retailing has its fair share of advantages, such as greater flexibility, accentuated customer outreach, decreased operational costs, faster transactions, more extensive product lines, and the convenience of shopping in the comfort of your home.
There’s one catch, however: first, you must gain the customer trust of your target audience and ensure them that it is safe to do business with you and make transactions through your website. If you can minimize the risk of shopping at your website, you can overcome the cut-throat competition in the industry. Otherwise, you will have low traffic and an even lower conversion rate.
5 Ways To Improve Customer Trust in Your eCommerce
1. Make Your Buyers Feel Secure & Safe
Make the online store trustworthy, as buying an item online can be a risky thing to do. As shoppers are heavily dependent on cashless transactions, the safety and security of the data are extremely important. To safeguard against cyber-attacks, we can think of website security as installing an SSL (secure sockets layer) certificate and migrating your website to an HTTPS extension is essential.
Often, customers are likely to exit websites without an SSL certificate since all the legitimate websites tend to have it. Also, suppose your website runs on the less secure version of HTTPS. In that case, HTTP, your customer’s data is also vulnerable to third-party access, leaving their personal information susceptible to breach.
If we talk about SSL certificates there are many types of, including Extended Validation Certificates (EV SSL), Organization Validated Certificates (OV SSL), Domain Validated Certificates (DV SSL), and so forth.
However, the EV SSL certificate is a perfect option for an e-commerce business as it offers the highest level of encryption and a green address bar to ensure customers’ trust.
Some of the most significant benefits of an EV SSL certificate include:
- A green address bar to improve your customer’s trust in your e-commerce store
- Recognized by almost all the web browsers
- Provides a high level of encryption
- Identity assurance
Shoppers today are pretty educated about this information, and Google also tends to flag sites that are not HTTPS. So, avoid any security breach incident that can tarnish your reputation forever by installing an SSL certificate on your e-commerce website.
2. User-Friendly & Clutter-Free User Interface
According to statistics, 38% will stop engaging with a website if the content or layout is unattractive.
So, enticing your customer as soon as they enter your website is essential. A simple and friendly user interface is the first key to that. Visitors lose interest as they are asked to register, fill in details, and do other things they do not want to do before they check the online store. Keep the first-time interaction minimum and full of opportunities.
The positioning of your product lines on the site is also critical. And the right use of colors, fonts, and pictures must be professional. Have a look at the following website’s interface:
Doesn’t it look shoddy to you? The text is cluttered, the color scheme doesn’t match, and the layout is unprofessional. Now, here’s another example:
This one is more optimized, has a better color scheme, and looks more professional. Which one would you trust more? Of course, the second one. Make sure that your customers feel that your website is professional after a single glance. Otherwise, they would never feel comfortable paying money through your website.
3. Add Reviews & Testimonials to Your Website
People judge a product or service by their reviews, so to make your online store trustworthy, it’s important to add transparent and authentic reviews to your website.
Nowadays, people believe in Facebook recommendations and what others say about a thing. Thus, e-commerce sites must ensure value for the customer and enhance his experience on their websites. If a customer does not find enough value, he or she may leave right away without even giving your product a chance.
Even a single negative review can cause harm and a potential loss of revenue. So, transparency in every deal is the best way to deal with it.
4. Offer Incentives & Loyalty Programs
The best way to build loyalty and improve customer trust when building an e-commerce store is to ensure recall and recognition. Come up with deals that will draw your customers for the second time. Many loyalty programs target customers for longer by providing them a long-term benefits. However, ensure you offer suitable incentives to an appropriate audience.
For instance, if your target audience entails millennials and older age groups, you must ensure that you offer something that aligns with both types of people.
Customization is essential to make your customers feel important and special. With the help of modern technology and artificial intelligence, it is possible to understand each customer and attract them to your site with customized and personalized schemes and offers.
5. Win Customer Loyalty (and Trust)
While the competition is getting more and more ferocious, there are only a few ways to survive and sustain in the marketplace. You must walk the extra mile and gain your customer’s trust and attention by offering something extra.
We see considerable discounts on every site. So, providing low-cost and high value is no more a big deal. The only way to win the game is to provide something extra. Many famous online retailers attract customers by providing a service or a unique experience. A standout yet value-adding “extra” will differentiate your e-commerce site from the others. Here is where strategy comes into place.
The very heart of strategy talks about trade-offs; you cannot have the best of both worlds. Instead, you must identify your customer segment and position your site in a way that adds value to their buying process and needs.
Wrap-Up on Improve Customer Trust
Before you start, please plan how to differentiate your e-commerce site from the others and what you want it to stand for. Once you identify your niche and target audience, more than half of your work is done. Try to play the game by not only providing the best deals but also providing good deals in the best way so that customers are attracted to the experience you provide and help you in capturing market share in the long term.
And most importantly, focus on the security of your ecommerce website to gain your customers’ trust. We hope this article on ways to build a trustworthy online store to improve customer trust in your e-commerce properly and honestly has helped you!
