Inspiring Confidence In Customers
This article explains how establishing trust in your online shop will help you increase customer loyalty. Online sales are increasing year on year; but it is big brands that are making profits online. A number of surveys carried out in the last few years reflect that consumers continue to need reassurance when making a purchase online. In a recent study conducted by Eurostat, the statistics office of the EU, it was revealed that security concerns prevent one in eight EU residents from e-shopping.
Shopping from independent online stores is more often than not surrounded by security fears. Customers can have a problem putting their trust in a company they know nothing about. Making the order process more transparent and including customer reviews or testimonials on an e-commerce site can help boost customer trust.
Contact details
If an e-commerce site does not clearly state the business’ phone number, it is at a risk of losing half the customers it could potentially sell to. A recent survey revealed that 50 per cent of people would never purchase anything from a site that does not provide a contact number.
It is therefore very surprising that out of a sample of 10,000 e-commerce websites in the UK, 60 per cent of UK online retailers provided no telephone number on their website, 43 per cent displayed no business address, while 39 per cent had no contact email address contact details is an essential requirement to reinforce customer trust. Considering the simplicity involved in putting up contact details on a website, this is the first step an online business should take to garner trust. According to laws applying to internet shopping, all online stores are required to provide an e-mail address as well but very few do.
Integrated safe payment solutions
The safety and ease with which a customer can pay for their product determines repeat purchases. In order to build a long term relationship with customers, it is important to give them various payment options from which to choose.
Creo’s e-commerce packages provide integrated safe payment solutions that allow customers to shop online securely and in confidence using bank cards, various credit cards, cheques, PayPal and the like. It’s important that customers have various methods of payment to choose from just as they would if they were buying from a bricks and mortar shop.
Security Certificates
Most retailers now realise the importance of keeping their customers' data secure by encrypting sensitive information such as credit card details before they are sent through the internet. A Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificate is required for this, and will mean that a padlock image is displayed at the bottom of the browser window. It is very common for customers to look for the padlock as another indication that the site is trustworthy.
To further emphasise the security of an e-commerce site, a certification image from a third party, such as VeriSign should be displayed. However these logos are not just simple images. They signify a valid security certificate and so they should link to further information about the certificate.
Customer reviews / Testimonials
According to the survey quoted above, more than half of the UK's online consumers say that reviews are important in the buying process, while similar numbers have more trust and respect for those websites that display reviews.
Only 38 per cent of online retailers however have a testimonial or comments section on their website. Customer reviews are an important tool to bolster the credibility of an online shop. Customer ratings and reviews form the basis of establishing trust in the minds of potential customers who might chance upon an online shop or visit it via recommendation. Providing accurate product information is also very important. Make sure online descriptions are as exact as possible to ensure the customer knows precisely what to expect.
Delivery / Returns options and costs
It’s important to be clear about delivery costs and the returns policy. Only a small proportion of retailers provide a free postage or delivery service, and just 15 per cent offer a next day or Special Delivery service. There is no excuse for failing to offer a choice of delivery options, as the customer carries the entire cost, whichever courier service is used. Having a returns policy that allows customers to return the product for a refund (minus postage) can reassure people that they are protected in case their goods arrive damaged or faulty.
Smooth transaction process
Customers should not get any surprises at the end of a transaction. If credit card or other personal details are required, the user must be made aware of this before they reach this step. Extra charges and hidden costs don’t go down well with customers and understandably so.
This is not just about security - hitting customers with unexpected charges at the end of a transaction is guaranteed to annoy them. A survey of customers found that 67 per cent of shoppers said such surprises would make them abandon a transaction.
Hosting service uptime
Websites are a business’s shop window on the Internet, therefore it is important that they should be available to potential customers at all times. So "uptime” – usually expressed as a percentage of the time a site is accessible on the Internet – is important. Excessive down time can leave your site visitors frustrated and in doubt about the quality of products or services being offered to them.
A good hosting service should be able to consistently deliver an uptime of 99.8 per cent or better each month. When looking into a web hosting service, the uptime guarantee is a critical feature that is often overlooked. However, this greatly impacts the level of commerce and satisfaction.
A web host with reliable uptime, like Hostway.com, will provide a solid foundation on which to build an online business, and should be chosen with care. Establishing customers' trust in the buying process is essential, and is difficult to re-establish once it has been broken.