Are you having trouble convincing your e-commerce site visitors to make a purchase? Even if you're confident in your product or business process, what you're probably lacking is trust.
Online consumers have legitimate concerns about online purchases. However, if you focus on protecting your customers, improving your user experience (UX), improving your online reputation, updating your website design, and focusing your marketing, you can significantly increase your trust meter.
Let's take a look at the best strategies for building online trust for your business and why it's essential to success.
How to build trust with online e-commerce customers
1. Protect the security and privacy of your customer's data.
Consumers want their personal data, especially their credit card information, to be highly protected. They don't want their credit card numbers stolen.
According to Statista, security breaches due to online payment fraud will cost businesses more than $40 billion in 2022.
Some consumers only shop on sites they know are safe. To protect your e-commerce website and customer data, you can use a trusted e-commerce platform, implement cybersecurity software, and train your employees on cybersecurity and privacy best practices.
Looking for a reliable platform to host your online store? Check out our picks for the best e-commerce platforms and shopping cart software.
2. Reduce uncertainty and meet customer product expectations.
Provide detailed and accurate information about products and delivery dates to ensure customer expectations match the product received. For example, you may want to provide details such as the material, size, and care instructions for your clothing. For electronic devices, you can explain how to use the features.
Additionally, to optimize the UX experience, you need to present your product as accurately as possible. If a product photo has been enlarged to show detail rather than to represent the product's actual size, such as a pendant, this must be clearly stated on the product page.
For some product categories, such as high-tech products and electronics, you can also post product videos on your company website or social media sites. Videos allow customers to better understand product features and how to use them.
3. Promote positive electronic word of mouth about your company, brand, and products.
Today's consumers rely on each other's opinions to make purchases online. As explained in this article, consumers may look at business review sites to rate companies and products, or ask their social media friends for product recommendations.
Many consumers would rather trust the opinions of friends and other consumers than advertising or promotional materials. Therefore, you need to drive positive electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) for your company by offering quality products and services, engaging with customers, and providing effective customer care through their preferred channels. Positive online reviews and ratings help build online trust with consumers.
4. Enhance your website design.
You want to make sure your company's website is professional, up-to-date, and well-organized, as consumers find poorly organized sites untrustworthy. Your customers should be able to access your e-commerce site and easily find the products they need.
You must present your products in a structured manner and provide accurate and up-to-date information about your products. Regularly check your website for dead links and remove them to ensure that all the information your customers find on your site is up to date.
You also need to reduce clutter on your e-commerce website and provide a seamless checkout process for your online customers. According to the Baymard Institute, recent statistics show shopping cart abandonment rates are over 70 percent.
You can increase your site speed, offer multiple payment options, improve your website design, simplify your sales process, and make your site mobile-friendly. A well-designed website can generate leads, increase sales, and build customer trust by providing your customers with a painless online shopping experience.
Providing contact information on your website proves to new customers that your business is legitimate. Show consumers that you can easily reach them by providing a phone number, address, email address, or visual location map. You can also improve your online reputation by adding your customer service direct phone number and current business hours.
5. Engage in content marketing.
By creating and distributing relevant and valuable content, you can increase brand awareness and credibility, attract new customers, and build connections with existing customers. You can post useful content such as research articles, infographics, webinars, videos, and podcasts to your company's website and social media. Videos are a great way to teach your customers how to use your product.
Post content must be original, current, informative, educational, and relevant to your audience. Authentic content allows you to demonstrate your leadership in the industry, increase your company's credibility, and build your audience's trust in your organization.
Do not plagiarize articles from other organizations' websites. You must respect the copyrights of others and the intellectual property of original authors. If the viewer finds out, it would be a serious breach of trust. Robust and original content helps you build online trust with your key audience.
Trust is one of the most important factors in customer relationships in an online environment. E-commerce companies protect customer data security and privacy, make customer expectations a reality, promote positive eWOM, improve the quality of e-commerce websites, and leverage content marketing to engage with their target audience. You need to build online trust.
Why building trust is important for your e-commerce business
Today's e-commerce environment is highly competitive. The e-commerce market continues to grow in the United States and around the world.
According to Statista's recent e-commerce statistics, U.S. e-commerce sales totaled approximately $278 billion in the second quarter of 2023. In the United States, nearly 18% of all retail sales occur online.
It's true that online shopping is a trend these days. Younger consumers, such as Gen Y and Gen Z, grew up in the digital age and prefer to shop and interact with retailers online. Many consumers ask their colleagues for suggestions on social media sites or look up his reviews online before making a purchase. Today's e-commerce has become a social commerce environment.
The fast-growing and competitive e-commerce and social commerce market presents opportunities and challenges for small and medium-sized businesses. Meanwhile, the brand can promote and sell its products online through multiple channels such as his website and social media sites to customers all over the world. Active eWOM through social media can also help you strengthen your brand name, attract new customers, and grow your business.
However, there is intense competition in the market. Today's consumers can easily compare products and prices online, read reviews and find out what customers are saying. To succeed in this competitive environment, you need to build brand trust with your customers online and maintain good customer relationships.
The basis of customer relationships in e-commerce markets is trust. Compared to shopping in a physical store, consumers face more uncertainty when shopping online for the following reasons:
- Some consumers are concerned about credit card security and privacy issues when providing personal information online.
- You may not physically see or touch the product. In some cases, the product you receive may not be what you expected.
- After ordering, you have to wait until the product arrives.
As online shoppers face this uncertainty, they want to only buy from trusted online vendors. Building trust in e-commerce is key to reducing anxiety about online spending. Trust must be at the forefront of everything a business does, including:
- Technology for websites, security, payment processing, etc.
- Product quality including multiple photo angles and videos
- Return policy
- customer reviews
- intelligent package tracking
Ming-Yi Wu contributed to this article.
