When it comes to managing a successful e-commerce business, you must be aware that one of the main factors is gaining and keeping your customer’s trust. Trust plays a huge role in ecommerce in particular, because customers can’t put a face or a physical address to your store. One must feel completely confident in your business to send their money and personal information to you. The more visitors that trust you, the more revenue you bring in.
Your website’s appearance plays a big role in earning trust. When customers visit your site, they look around just as they would in a traditional storefront location. They are scanning throughout the site to decide if they can trust making a purchase from you. A customer may look to make sure your information is up-to-date, as well as looking at the logo and checking for quality graphics.
Your site should show that you are a real company, possessing everything a company should have. This should include a full contact page, including an email, phone number(s), contact hours, and address. In addition to contact information, go a little further by adding an about us page. The page should tell about you and your company’s background accompanied by a photograph. If you have a team, use this page to showcase a photograph of them and their background also. When real people are on the site, customers trust the business.
Certificates and badges, such as SSL certificates, PCI compliance and other certifications, show that you have put effort into your security measures. Customers appreciate a site that uses trusted servers. Provide a clear and easy-to-locate privacy policy, addressing the reasons for needing sensitive information, followed by guaranteeing that you will not give it out or “spam” them with emails.
Great customer service is another powerful encouragement for making a purchase. Offer a great return policy and be available for contact through multichannel support. If contacted by a customer, be sure to reply in a timely manner. In many ways, customer support response times determine how the customer sees your company. The key to success is to stay consistent through all channels whether phone, social media, online chat or email. If you are unavailable, have a backup response system, such as a voicemail or an automated response message.
Trust is everything when it comes to purchasing online. Visitors must feel confident through every aspect of your website. Gaining trust from customers doesn’t develop overnight. However, maintained customer trust in your business will lead to long-term loyalty.
Resource: http://www.shopify.com/blog/6327946-5-strategies-to-get-customers-to-trust-your-ecommerce-store