Trust in eCommerce
-The key factor to success.
‘To gain trust in eCommerce is the key factor in succeeding with eCommerce’, but why is it so important?
We walk to a retail store to buy a consumer product, we find it easy to trust because we can see, touch, feel the product as well as can interact with the concerned Sales Person and as we know it’s a general buying behavior that we prefer to take away the product home, as soon as we pay for it.
But in eCommerce, consumers do not get the opportunity to check or touch the product prior purchasing it. So gaining trust and confidence of the consumers becomes most important and a driving factor in eCommerce business.Thus to gain trust in eCommerce is of utmost importance.
Consumers think it’s risky to make transaction in an Online Store until and unless they are sure about the Online Store’s Credibility. This is the very reason why consumers are willing to buy a product at a higher price from a branded and well-known online store rather than a lesser known web shop offering the same product but at a lower price.
Consumers go through the following stages before re-choosing a store to buy something:
Giving attention to certain aspects of your eCommerce business can help you gain consumer trust and confidence:
- Identity :
Maintain a page on “Who we are” with your company’s contact info and physical location of your offices.This help to build trust in eCommerce and make the consumers aware of your physical existence.You can also post photos of your office or list membership with the chamber of commerce. Certifications with reputed agencies can also be a plus point. Maintaining transparency about the identity of your company can boost the online store’s credibility.
- Testimonials and Reviews :
Trustworthy reviews and testimonials are always essential to make consumers have faith in your products and service. Consumers assign more credibility to sites that have been recently reviewed. But most importantly you should not only filter the good reviews. All good reviews with 5 star rating will never give a genuine feeling to the consumers. Rather if you get a complaint/unsatisfying review, thank them for letting you know and address it and try to rectify it as fast as possible. It will complement your customer support capabilities and will show how good you deal with problems you have, attracting more buyers to your site.
- Appearance and Content :
Consumers at the first stage try to quickly evaluate the online store by its visual design. So while getting the store designed, it’s important to look at the logo, layout, typography, relevancy of images, product image quality, consistency issues, device supportability etc. Consumers often co-relate the content quality of the store with trustworthiness. So having spelling mistakes can also be a turn off.
But remember trust is organic. Trust in eCommerce cannot be gained overnight. It has to be cultivated over long periods of time, with the increase in the number of consumers and their experience of visiting to your store. Build it step by step and try to improve your eCommerce store and always try to be there to give the best customer service to your consumers. Listen to your customers and you shall gain their trust!!
