Do you remember the last time you visited a store for the first time?
Do you recall the feeling of curiosity as you walked up to their doors?
Right before you open the door, you’re imagining the layout, the products, the people, and everything that could possibly be inside. As soon as you open the door, you know right away if you’ll be spending hours browsing or minutes looking for an escape.
Online customers go through the same experience when they visit your eCommerce website for the first time. First impressions are imperative in the online world and your website is a great way to create a sense of trust and quality. Online customers are looking for products and services that live up their value, which means that they need to be able to trust you and the product/service they offer.
Unlike a storefront, your website is the only interaction a customer can have to make a buying decision. Below are five tips to ensure that your website is designed to cultivate trustworthiness and leave enticing impressions.
Creating a trustworthy website requires you to:
- Make your website a resource, not just as a salesperson.
- Be transparent and make information easy to access.
- Proudly display your badges/seals/warranties/guarantees that certify you as a seller.
- Conveniently provide testimonials and reviews, keep it honest and visible.
- Provide a cohesive website experience with good design and supportive visuals.
Be a Resource First, Salesperson Second
Yes, it takes a lot of time and a lot of money to develop and launch your webstore. So we get the feeling of wanting to focus on only making sales with your website. The problem this urgency creates is that people often feel the need to bombard the customer with pop up deals, pushy call-to-actions, and forget about the small details.
When you only focus on your sales pitch, customers are quick to perceive you as pushy and spammy- both reasons that will cause them to exit your website right away.
Customers should be able to use your website as a source to learn more about you and what you offer. Make sure the content on your website is informative so that they can feel confident they know you. When online customers feel confident, it’s more likely they’ll go through the check out process and fulfill the purchase. Online shoppers rely strongly on their gut feeling, if your website is creating the wrong notion you’ll start to lose trust and sales.
Make your website transparent and accessible
Communication is the key to trust. As cheesy as that sounds, it’s true and it’s true with websites as well. Make sure your website is transparent with all the proper information about your business and your product/service. Before making an online purchase, shoppers have many questions they want answered in order to pull the trigger on buying.The longer you make a customer look for an answer, the longer it will take them to make their buying decision. Below are easy ways of creating transparency to convey trust:
FAQ Section
A Frequently-Asked-Questions page is the easiest way to provide a valuable source of information is by having an FAQ section on your website. This is where you get to list out the most commonly asked questions about your business and what you offer. Having this in place can answer many valuable questions that potential buyers may have, it only takes once to set up! (Make sure to update as your business grows or you learn of new frequently asked questions)
EXTRA TIP: Make the FAQ something easy to access anywhere and at any point in your website. The best location is having a link or button in the footer of your website. This ensures that the FAQ section is accessible on every page.
Process and Policies
These are definitely not the most exciting pages of your website, but having links that provide information on policies and processes can help customers feel more at ease and feel comfortable purchasing from you. Customers appreciate when they can read your return policy, privacy policy, and other procedural documents that let them know you mean good business. The key is to always remind your visitors that they can feel comfortable spending time on your website and more importantly, shopping on your website.
Clear and Honest Descriptions
Selling what you offer is one thing, but describing what you provide is another. Make sure your products and services are explained in detail. The buying process needs to be smooth and easy for the customer to walk through it with trust. Customers want to know everything that they’ll be receiving and as an ecommerce business you need to ensure that their expectation is met. If you sell a product, provide detailed and accurate product description and specifications of your product like size dimensions, weight, colors, features, and other important details that describe what you offer. If you provide a service, make sure there’s a step-by-step process on what customers should expect from the process of your service and provide a detailed description of what that service will fulfill.
Certification Builds Trust
In the online world, having a trustworthy image is key to driving more sales. Proudly display badges and seals like the Better Business Bureau accreditation, certificates of excellence, five-star Yelp ratings. Make sure your website has an SSL certificate so that your customers can see that your website is safe for them to use.
Another way of certifying visitors that they can trust you is through warranties and guarantees. Nothing can make someone feel confident in purchasing like a money-back guarantee. If you provide this as an option, proudly display the offer across your site!
Better Business Bureau accreditation, certificates of excellence, five-star Yelp ratings… These are the kinds of things that make customers feel like they can trust you. Add them to your site!
Testimonials and reviews are a must
The customer knows you’re the seller, naturally they’re not going to give you their full trust. Make it easy for them to trust you by showing them others that did. Online shoppers count on other online shoppers to inform each other on which products and companies are trustworthy. Reviews are one of the primary things visitors look for when deciding to make an online purchase. As customers browse your website, they look for reviews to learn about the honest experiences that previous customers had with your business.
Cohesive website experiences shows quality
Last but never least, make sure your website has a cohesive look and is tailored to your brand. Having a logo and a product is one thing, having a brand is another. When your website has a branded experience, customers learn what to expect from you and gives you the opportunity to set a level of quality standards. Online customers are intelligent and they can tell what companies invest in how they present themselves. This can build trust as consumers can see you take your business seriously. To accomplish the appropriate look, make sure to have a branded look with cohesive colors, fonts, photography style, and a predictable way of laying out your content. You never want to be the restaurant that people leave when they walk in and see it, this should be the same for your website. Take a look at your website and make sure you have a unique cohesive look that creates a motivating buying experience.