Undoubtedly Ecommerce is big business and if we talk about ecommerce website to succeed, they have to be effective enough to convert. But what exactly makes ecommerce website effective?
Well, there are lots of aspects but certainly customer trust tops the chart.
Following are the guidelines you should keep in mind when building an ecommerce website to win customer trust:
1) Get SSL for your website. Show trust mark and security logo.
SSL
SSL certificate is used to establish a secure connection between the server and the browser. For ecommerce website it is highly recommended to install SSL certificate in order to secure the privacy of your customers.
A study conducted by GlobalSign stated that:
- More than 84% of online buyers would abandon the purchase if data is sent over an unsecure connection
- 50% of online buyers worry about their credit card information being stolen
- Around 28.9% online buyer look for the green address bar
Security Logo
Before making any purchase, people want to see if your checkout has logos of whatever security service you are in. They will immediately trust their transactions with your business.
A survey from the Baymard Institute found that Norton wins the race followed by McAfee.
Always be careful about your ecommerce website security. Even Google has taken a big step in dealing with malware-infected websites. Google show such websites with message in SERPs “This site may be hacked”. This can impact negatively on your website conversion and losing all the organic traffic. Moreover, this encourages your customer to go to your competitors’ website.
2) Show your contact details clearly
Based on Econsultancy study, around 46% of 2000 UK online consumers said that they would buy on a website with clear contact details.
Make sure that your contact us page contains the details that help your customer to reach you easily. Your email address, phone number and your physical address must be there and nowadays you can set your business through Google My Business and have your business listed on Google Maps.
Showing your contact details clearly will help increase trust in your business and people know they can reach you for any inquiry or comments.
3) Live Chat
An online web chat gives immense relief to customers if they find any representative to discuss their issues instantly.
4) Excellent customer services
One of the best ways to gain the customer trust and loyalty is by offering reliable customer service. This definitely would be the easiest on the list but benefits only if done effectively. The way you deal with customer queries will reflect on reviews and social media posts about your brand.
5) Define your shipping costs, clear delivery timeline, trusted payment systems and return policies
According to AcquireConvert stated that 60% of online buyers are more likely to complete the purchase when they have assurance from the retailer about the delivery date. According to Econsultancy, it was found that 70.8% of consumers abandon a cart due to hidden charges, 74.5% due to high shipping cost and 58.4% because of payment security concerns.
Advice here is that, be upfront with shipping cost, be transparent and honest about the anything that can incur additional cost.
6) Participate in social media discussion. Allow online review to increase trust
Ecommerce statistics stated by HostingFacts.com are:
- E-commerce sales from social media grew by 202% in 2014, and is expected to further increase.
- 38% online consumer said that social media interaction is one of the reasons for visiting retailers website.
Based on article by Kissmetrics, around 55% customers buying decisions are influenced by reviews given by existing customers.
7) Add free shipping
Customers almost always love freebies. One oft-cited way to ensure online shoppers complete their purchases is to add free shipping.
- Online buyers love freebies. One best way to ensure your buyer complete their purchase is to add free shipping.
- NuFACE increased sales by 90% when it added free shipping threshold.
8) Make sure your website loads quickly and built user-friendly
Following interesting statistics reveled by NetImperative about the website speed and design:
- 65% online consumers won’t wait if your website takes longer than 3 seconds
- Customer satisfaction plummets 7% for every second it takes for a website to load
- 76% customers agree easy to navigation is the most important element of a website
- 93% consumer purchase decision influence by website visual appearance
- 52% of consumer abandon and never return on a website if they don’t like the design