Easy Ways To Build Customer Trust

Building trust with your customers is pretty darn important for the success of your bricks and mortar retail store as well as your online store. Win a person's trust and not only will they continue to shop with you – they'll also go ahead and rave about you to all of their friends.

But building trust isn’t easy. It takes time, hard work and a ton of effort to strengthen that relationship...

Check out our top 7 ways that you can help to build trust and confidence with your online store customers!

1. Have great site navigation

According to Forrester research , 50% of your sales are lost because your visitors can't find what they are looking for. Site navigation is a big confidence builder and really can help you increase sales. A complicated navigation process is not only frustrating for your visitors, but it also makes you seem unprofessional...

Action points: Your web design and navigation goes hand in hand. What you need to do is map out the journey of your customers to see where they go and look for ways in which you can improve it. Make it easy for your customers to find your products. Limit the amount of clicks that it takes to get the checkout. And make sure your online store is responsive across all devices.

Another great way to really drill down and find out where your customers are clicking and where they are struggling to navigate around the site, is to use a heat map tool .

2. Feature product reviews

Testimonials are a surefire way to build confidence. The truth is, people trust people ahead of brands, so if you want to increase your conversions, then start featuring reviews on your site. The goods news is that 79% of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations so what we'd suggest is to ask previous customers to review your product, once they've bought it.

Action points: Once you've asked your customers for reviews, you should aim to feature them underneath that specific product to help give more information to potential customers. Make it easy for your customers to leave reviews by plugging your store into a review software tool. Did you know that with our Ecommerce solution , you can integrate your online store with Yotpo?

3. Take awesome product photography

Making sure your products look good is an important part of building trust so that you can make that sale! Let's be honest, no-one wants to buy from the store with the poor visuals do they? In fact, 67% of customers say that image quality is hugely important when making a purchase. If your products look good in a picture, then it will add further reassurance that you are a legitimate business.

Action points: If you don't have the budget to pay a professional then don't worry – smartphone technology has made it really easy for us to take great photography. When capturing the right shot, remember to think about the perfect position, lighting and angles.

4. Provide real-time support

Did you know that 83% of online shoppers need help when making a purchase? Think about the last time you were shopping for a product online. You need to know all there is to know about that product, otherwise you'd probably go elsewhere, right? If you want to build up customer trust then make sure you offer real-time support to give them the help when they need it.

Action points: In addition to adding plenty of product info and FAQ's, plug your store into a real-time chat software and you can speak to your customers whenever they need help. In fact, you can integrate our platform with various chat tools such as LivePerson, LiveChat and Live2Support.

5. Become certified

This one can really help build confidence, particularly if you are just starting out on your Ecommerce venture. Online consumers have become really savvy and many will not shop with you if you don't have a certified website. Having all the usual credentials will help show visitors that your business can be trusted.

Action points: Buy an SSL security certificate so when a person jumps onto your site, they know that you are a verified business. Once you've got it, the address bar will change to 'https' and depending on how much you pay, the address bar will feature and padlock and turn green.

6. Provide a secure checkout

A secure checkout is another big thing that can influence whether a customer makes their purchase with you. What is your current purchase policy? In addition to a secure checkout, make sure you clearly tell the customer what your refund/exchange policy is and send them an automated confirmation email as soon as they make their purchase.

Action points: Clearly state your exchange and refund policy on your site and integrate with an automated email system so that the customer knows that they've just made a purchase. Integrate with a recognized third-party payment vendor such as PayPal, to further assure your customers.

7. Be a human

No matter what kind of business you have, if you want to gain trust then you need to build a strong relationship with your customers. The best way to do this is to just be yourself! Show that visitor that you are human and there is a face behind your brand.

Action points: In addition to an 'about us' and having a personality on social media, think about creating a blog so that you can provide your visitors with great content. It'll help create a good impression of your brand – and it's great for SEO too!

Takeaway

As you can see building trust is all about showing your customers that you are a reputable business. Follow our top tips and your online store will be well armed with everything needed to convince people that you are a pro!

And as we mentioned above, we offer plenty of tools that can be integrated with your Ecommerce store so give us a call today to find out more!