7 Ways to Build Trust (and Boost Sales) on Your eCommerce Website
If there’s one thing that watching too much Catfish will teach you is that you basically can’t trust anyone on the internet. Pretty much anyone can make a website these days and unfortunately that includes schemers and scammers out there making it hard for the rest of us who run legit businesses online. When it comes to eCommerce, you definitely have a hurdle to overcome that you don’t have IRL and that is: how do you get people to trust you?
Turns out there are a few subtle things that people look for on websites that are like little beacons of hope that they aren’t going to be robbed of their life savings by working with you and they are called TRUST SIGNALS. Incorporating some (or all) of these into your site goes a long way towards letting people know that amid all the nonsense happening online, you’re one of the good guys.
To build trust online, make sure your site has these:
Social proof. Incorporate reviews, recommendations, feedback, or testimonials from past clients on your website so that future customers can see what it’s like to work with you or buy from you. Bonus points if they are third-party verified like those from Google or Wiremo.
A clear shipping & return policy, if you sell physical products. People will look to the footer of your website for info on shipping and returns and without this info, you could look like you’re trying to be kinda shady. Also, a secret little eCommerce trick to instantly building trust: offering free returns. As it turns out, scammers won’t tell you that you can send your order back at no charge.
A picture of you or your team. This one is so simple and yet so effective: show your face. People do business with people and that means being able to look you in the eye, even if it’s virtual ;) This is one I can personally attest to the effectiveness of; despite my years of hesitation in putting a picture of myself on my website, I finally added one about a year ago. The analytics don’t lie and I truly believe that this had a major impact on an uptick in leads and inquiries. Give it a try!
Your address, if you have a physical location. (Although I will say there’s no shame if you’re completely virtual and either doesn’t have or don’t want to put your address out there!) That being said, if you have a physical location, adding an address is a huge trust builder. I would say that even if it’s not a street address saying something like “Based in the Pacific Northwest” is better than nothing.
An SSL certificate. Not only does the little lock symbol in your browser bar mean that people can confidently trust that transactions on your site are secure, but this also matters a ton to Google and insecure sites give everyone major red flags! Don’t worry if you just had to actually Google what an “SSL certificate” is -- my fave platforms (Squarespace & Shopify) take care of this for you! Winning.
Social media links - but only links to active accounts! LOL, I had to add that little caveat there because there’s nothing more unnerving than clicking on a social link and realizing that the last time someone was actually on Twitter was 2013. I mean, does this mean you’re no longer in business? Are you in jail? Did you get abducted by aliens? Add links to accounts you’re active on so that people can engage with you. That’s the point of social, after all.
Clear ways to contact you. This can be a simple contact page with a contact form, or a page that lists contact phone numbers and email addresses for your business. You could also go a step further and add a live chat widget. Not convinced that live chat is where it’s at? Check out this post or this one where I dig into this specific feature even deeper!
Hopefully, you see how adding even just a few of these trust signals to your eCommerce website can help you build major consumer confidence!
