Convincing customers to buy from your ecommerce store is an uphill battle, especially with so much competition out there – you need to build trust. When you’ve got companies like Amazon out there that sell pretty much anything, often at a lower price than you can afford to sell for, you need to make sure that you stand out.Unfortunately, that’s only half the battle. Once you’ve got them there, you still need to convince them to make a purchase. The risk of being scammed online is always a worry for people so, naturally, they aren’t going to put their credit card details on any old site. If they don’t trust your site, you won’t make any sales. That’s the key to clinching the sale; trust. If you find yourself struggling then it’s probably because your website doesn’t look trustworthy, here’s how you can fix that.
Increase Your Search Rankings
Most of the time there isn’t much truth in it, but the majority of users will automatically have more faith in the sites that appear nearer the top of the search listings, amongst the more established companies. If people don’t find your site until the second or third page of results, assuming they even bother to get that far, they’re more likely to worry about the safety of their details. Find yourself a top-rated SEO firm and get them to help you climb those rankings. It’s a good investment that every company should be making. If they can get you onto the first page, you’ll see more visitors coming to the site in the first place and, more importantly, they’ll be more likely to think that you’re legitimate.
Keep your Checkout Process Simple
A complicated checkout process is a problem for two reasons. The first is simple, it’s annoying. If people have to spend half an hour filling out extensive forms before they can pay for their products, they’re more likely to abandon their baskets which is a huge problem for ecommerce companies. The second problem is that it looks dodgy. Asking for extensive information makes people worry about things like credit card fraud and identity theft. You should keep your checkout process as simple as possible and if you can, offer safer alternatives like Paypal which people will feel more comfortable using. Using a payment service that people recognize will help to put their mind at ease.
Encourage Reviews to Improve Trust and Credibility
Reviews are one of the most popular ways that customers decide whether to buy a product or not, but it also helps to put fears of foul play at rest. If there’s a load of reviews about the service, then it’s clear that people haven’t had any trouble with it. When pretty much every site is including these days, anybody that doesn’t have them looks suspicious. It immediately makes customers wonder what you’ve got to hide. It’s even better to get reviews through an established site like Trustpilot so people know that they’re completely impartial.
Trust is the most important thing for a successful ecommerce business. Without trust, you’ll never make any sales.
