5 Ways to Build Customer Trust Online

When we exchange money for an item or service, we essentially are exchanging and building trust. Someone pays for your product and in return, you promise to deliver their product. It’s a simple process but when it comes to online shopping, many eCommerce shops fail to build customer trust online.

 

This affects customer retention rates because if there is no trust that was built with the consumer as soon as they land on a website, you can guarantee they won’t make it to the payment page.

This is one of the main reasons why a 2020 online retail study shows that 18% of shoppers abandon a checkout cart because they didn’t trust eCommerce sites with their credit card information.

 

With the eCommerce industry growing and more brands becoming available to shop online, how can you start to build customer trust online with potential consumers who stumble across your online store, especially if you’re a small brand?

 

In this post, you are going to learn the top 5 ways to build customer trust online  so that you can increase your;

• Online product sales
• Referral rates
• Customer repeat purchase rate
• Email list

and more! 

1. Have an SSL Certificate to Build Customer Trust Online

Regardless of if you have an eCommerce store or not, it’s very important to have a domain name with an SSL certificate. Take a look at this screenshot of our website and pay close attention to our domain name in the browser. 

See that lock in the browser to the left of our domain name? That’s how you know our site, or any site, is secure to shop on. An SSL certificate will 

• Protect user data
• Affirm your identity (there’s so many fake websites out there!)
• Satisfy PCI/DSS requirements (basically to accept payments legally online!)
• Improve customer’s trust because their data and payment information is secured

 2. Creating a Brand Story with an “About Us” or “Our Story” page

It’s no secret that people want to buy from real people. It’s also no secret that people love a good story. Your potential customers  aren’t just looking for the right products to buy.

 

They’re also searching for the right businesses and missions to support. Consumers are becoming very aware of where they spend their money and they want to make sure they are purchasing products with a company that is moral and has ethical standards of operations.

 

 As an eCommerce entrepreneur, it’s your job to establish, maintain, and nurture authentic relationships with your past, current, and future customers. 

 

An easy way to do this is to share why your business is passionate about solving a certain problem or delivering a certain product or service. If you check out Our Story Page, you’ll learn Shift StyleHouse’s mission, more about the founder, why we started, who we serve and more! It helps our customers know that they are purchasing from a company that understands them as a person!

 

3. Have Product or Service Demonstration videos

 

Video is the rave for all industries right now and they are powerful marketing tools. This is mainly because it’s easier to capture a person’s attention with video and retail their attention longer than just images or text. 

• Almost 80% of people state that product videos give them more confidence when purchasing a product.
• 73% more visitors who watch product videos will buy and 57% are less surprised by products with video.
• Businesses that use videos see on average 34% higher online conversion rates than those without videos

When it comes to shopping online, you have to remember that your potential customers can’t physically touch the product, try the product on, see the true color and more.

 

Providing videos for your products fills that gap. Use videos on your websites, social media accounts and even in emails! If you visit our Shift StyleHouse Instagram, you will find all sorts of videos that help the customer feel like they are shopping in store for the product and this helps with higher click through rates! 

 

4. Have a live chat option to build customer trust online

As consumers, we understand the power or artificial intelligence and it serves its purpose in many industries. However, when it comes to shopping online and we run across a certain problem or question, it’s nice to chat to a real person in real time. 

 

 Live chat can help nurture and build relationships with new shoppers who may have never come across your brand before. Take a look at the statistics below of having a Live Chat feature on your site.

 

• Roughly 44% of online customers say that having questions answered by a live person while purchasing something is one of the most important features of a website.
• Over half of consumers are more likely to repurchase from a company who offer live chat support, and 79% of businesses say offering live chat has had a positive effect on sales, revenue, and customer loyalty

 

At Shift StyleHouse, we understand that our customers, and potential customers, have questions they would love answered in real time since they aren’t at a physical store to ask an employee. To fill that gap, we’ve added a chat feature to our store. Check out the image below!

 

 

If you are an eCommerce store running a Shopify website, we recommend checking out Chatra for live chat features on your website.

 

5. Having Personalized Emails to Build Consumer Trust Online

 

Customers are bombarded with emails from eCommerce brands everyday. It’s your job to have your emails stand out, have a high open rate and high click through rate to get them back on to your site.

 

Creating personalized emails will make the customer feel as though you actually care about them and not just about getting them to buy your product.

 

 This is where we recommend looking for an email provider that has personalized options to place certain customer’s emails in segment groups. This way, you can create emails that personally reflect that customer’s last purchase choice. Here’s some ways to add personalization to your email.

 

• Add first name greetings to email subjects
• Personalized product recommendations based on last purchases
• Customized thank you emails

 

Building Customer Trust Online Today

 

It’s time to take a look at your eCommerce shopping experience and ask yourself, if you were a new customer, would you trust purchasing from your own store?

 

 We’d love to know which trust building tip was your favorite in the comments below? Loved this educational blog post? Share it with a friend who’s starting their eCommerce journey to set them up for success. 

 

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