Building
trust with your customers is pretty darn important for the success of your bricks and mortar retail store as well as your online store.
Win a person's trust and not only will they continue to shop with you
– they'll also go ahead and rave about you to all of their friends.
But
building trust isn’t easy. It takes time, hard work and a ton of
effort to strengthen that relationship...
Check
out our top 7 ways that you can help to build trust and confidence
with your online store customers!
1.
Have great site navigation
According
to
Forrester
research
,
50% of your sales are lost because your visitors can't find what they
are looking for. Site navigation is a big confidence builder and
really can help you increase sales. A complicated navigation process
is not only frustrating for your visitors, but it also makes you seem
unprofessional...
Action
points:
Your web design and navigation goes hand in hand. What you need to do
is map out the journey of your customers to see where they go and
look for ways in which you can improve it. Make it easy for your
customers to find your products. Limit the amount of clicks that it
takes to get the checkout. And make sure your online store is
responsive across all devices.
Another
great way to really drill down and find out where your customers are
clicking and where they are struggling to navigate around the site,
is to use a
heat
map tool
.
2.
Feature product reviews
Testimonials
are a surefire way to build confidence. The truth is, people trust
people ahead of brands, so if you want to increase your conversions,
then start featuring reviews on your site. The goods news is that
79%
of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations so
what we'd suggest is to ask previous customers to review your
product, once they've bought it.
Action
points:
Once you've asked your customers for reviews, you should aim to
feature them underneath that specific product to help give more
information to potential customers. Make it easy for your customers
to leave reviews by plugging your store into a review software tool.
Did you know that with our
Ecommerce
solution
,
you can integrate your online store with
Yotpo?
3.
Take awesome product photography
Making
sure your products look good is an important part of building trust
so that you can make that sale! Let's be honest, no-one wants to buy
from the store with the poor visuals do they? In fact,
67%
of customers say that image quality is hugely important when making a
purchase. If your products look good in a picture, then it will add
further reassurance that you are a legitimate business.
Action
points:
If you don't have the budget to pay a professional then don't worry –
smartphone technology has made it really easy for us to take great
photography. When capturing the right shot, remember to think about
the perfect position, lighting and angles.
4.
Provide real-time support
Did
you know that
83%
of online shoppers need help when making a purchase? Think about the
last time you were shopping for a product online. You need to know
all there is to know about that product, otherwise you'd probably go
elsewhere, right? If you want to build up customer trust then make
sure you offer real-time support to give them the help when they need
it.
Action
points:
In addition to adding plenty of product info and FAQ's, plug your
store into a real-time chat software and you can speak to your
customers whenever they need help. In fact, you can integrate our
platform with various chat tools such as
LivePerson,
LiveChat
and Live2Support.
5.
Become certified
This
one can really help build confidence, particularly if you are just
starting out on your Ecommerce venture. Online consumers have become
really savvy and many will not shop with you if you don't have a
certified website. Having all the usual credentials will help show
visitors that your business can be trusted.
Action
points:
Buy an SSL security certificate so when a person jumps onto your
site, they know that you are a verified business. Once you've got it,
the address bar will change to 'https' and depending on how much you
pay, the address bar will feature and padlock and turn green.
6.
Provide a secure checkout
A
secure checkout is another big thing that can influence whether a
customer makes their purchase with you. What is your current purchase
policy? In addition to a secure checkout, make sure you clearly tell
the customer what your refund/exchange policy is and send them an
automated confirmation email as soon as they make their purchase.
Action
points:
Clearly
state your exchange and refund policy on your site and integrate with
an automated email system so that the customer knows that they've
just made a purchase. Integrate with a recognized third-party payment
vendor such as
PayPal,
to further assure your customers.
7.
Be a human
No
matter what kind of business you have, if you want to gain trust then
you need to build a strong relationship with your customers. The best
way to do this is to just be yourself! Show that visitor that you are
human and there is a face behind your brand.
Action
points:
In addition to an 'about us' and having a personality on social
media, think about creating a blog so that you can provide your
visitors with great content. It'll help create a good impression of
your brand – and it's great for SEO too!
Takeaway
As
you can see building trust is all about showing your customers that
you are a reputable business. Follow our top tips and your online
store will be well armed with everything needed to convince people
that you are a pro!
And
as we mentioned above, we offer plenty of tools that can be
integrated with your
Ecommerce
store so give us a call today to find out more!