Establishing trust and building consumer confidence has never been more important for ecommerce success than now, in our post-pandemic era. Consumers are more conscious of how they spend their money and wary of online scams and poor customer service, which rose rapidly during lockdown.
Even in the pre-pandemic days, building consumer confidence was a huge factor in convincing a web visitor to enter their card details and complete a transaction on your site.
Studies back this up, revealing over 20% of consumers are put off online shopping due to concerns of scams, fraudulence, and the uncertainty of returns and deliveries.
That’s why we’ve compiled 5 Tips on How to Build Consumer Confidence Online. Our advice is designed to help you snap up these wary online shoppers, accelerate your conversions, and grow your ecommerce business online.
Social Proofing is Key
The key to building consumer confidence often lies with your previous customers. Their honest, unfiltered reviews are proof that your product is good, and your brand is trustworthy.
When new browsers read good reviews from previous buyers and see that other people have bought and loved your product, they’re more likely to trust your brand and click ‘buy’.
They just need that assurance that your product is good from someone unbiased (i.e. someone that isn’t you).
87% of consumers read online reviews before making a purchase, so make sure you are showcasing your good reviews and giving your web visitors that final push they need to buy from your brand.
To showcase your reviews, you’ll need a review platform that will easily integrate with your site. Don’t worry, you can find out more about what you’ll need from a review platform here.
Be Easy to Contact
A quick way to boost your website’s credibility, and the credibility of your entire company, is to be easily contactable for your customers.
Online shoppers are already slightly suspicious of brands they haven’t heard of, and the absence of contact and address details just fuels that fear and will leave your site scattered with abandoned baskets.
Provide as many contact methods as you can to increase your accessibility to consumers and enhance their trust, like a phone number, physical address, live chat box, enquiry form, and email address.
Consumers will be comforted knowing they can get in touch with you easily, and you’ll be rewarded with more sales – live chat alone can boost your conversion rate by 45%!
TIP: You can also use your contact methods, such as email addresses in enquiry forms, to gather customer data for remarketing purposes.
Shout About Your Achievements – But Back Them Up!
In a world of ‘Fake News’, you can’t get away with posting big claims without the proof to back yourself up. It makes consumers suspicious of you, and they can’t help but doubt if you really did get ‘Independent Retailer of the Year’ or if you really did feature on the front page of Forbes Magazine. Can you blame them?
If you’re featured in the article of a popular paper, partnered with a well-known brand, received another award, or been voted as the Travellers’ Choice on Tripadvisor by millions – you should always provide a link to the source of your claim.
It goes without saying that your achievements should be visible on your site – they increase your credibility, make you stand out, build consumer confidence and besides, few businesses can claim that they’ve been recognized by a third-party for being so great!
But if you don’t provide a hyperlink over that badge of honour on your website or social media page, it could raise some eyebrows and potential consumers could turn cynical.
When consumers can click through and view the source of your ‘as featured in’, or ‘award-winning’, they will see proof of your success, and ‘Check Out’ with confidence.
In short: shout about your success to gain credibility but always validate your claims to secure consumer confidence – otherwise, you risk looking dishonest and scammy.
Bonus Tip: Not only are external links good for credibility, they’re also good for your SEO rating!
Make Your Site Professional, Quick & User-Friendly – Especially At Check Out
The sweet spot for site loading time is less than 2 seconds, with over half of consumers ditching websites that take 3 seconds or more to load.
Not only does your site have to load in supersonic speed, but it also has to perform to a user’s expectations and be easy to navigate. Buttons, links, filters, and forms need to respond quickly, or a user will simply spend their money at your competitor’s site in fear that you’re unprofessional, uncredible, and don’t know what you’re doing.
A dodgy-looking or unresponsive Check Out is enough to fill the most avid online shopper with suspicion, as they begin questioning the security of their card details with every second spent buffering. Not only does this put customers off before they check out, but it also puts them off ever coming back and spending more.
The best way to ensure your site looks as credible as you are, is to consult a Web Development Agency to optimise your website with the user in mind. A professional and high-functioning site will enhance customer experience and confidence, as they seamlessly find what they’re looking for and Check Out with trust and ease.
Offer Easy Return
40% of consumers claimed the reason they had not purchased anything online was due to the ambiguity associated with returning the item, and 67% of users always check the Returns Policy of an online store before they buy.
Overall, there is widespread anxiety over the returns process when making an online purchase, which is so severe that it puts a lot of consumers off purchasing at all. The good news is that 72% of surveyed users claim they would purchase from an online retailer again if the returns process was simple and easy. So, by offering quick, no-questions-asked returns, you could stand out from your competitors, increase your credibility, and give consumers the assurance they need to hit ‘Buy Now’.
Some companies are opting out of returns all together, with a Money-Back Guarantee and Zero Returns Policy to build confidence in the world of cautious online shoppers.
Go For It!
We hope our 5 Tips on How to Build Consumer Confidence has given you some advice on how to establish and maintain trust with your online customers. By adding customer reviews, being contactable, showcasing your achievements with proof (for the really suspicious consumers), enhancing site performance, and offering easy or zero returns with money-back guarantees, you will show browsers that your website is safe, and your brand is trustworthy and credible. This transparency and professionalism will give consumers the final convincing they need to buy from your brand, and you’ll be rewarded with conversions and returning customers.
Don’t worry if you are unsure how to implement some of these steps. We recommend consulting a professional Ecommerce Agency to take care of your website, especially if you are unsure how to add some of these features to your website and apply them effectively. That way, you can leave it to the professionals, while you focus on the important day-to-day running of your business!
