Top 7 Trust Concerns for Online Shoppers in 2015

Experts in ecommerce business understand that Trust is the Holy Grail of their corporation. Sure enough... By now, you may be thinking, “What kind of trust are we talking about here? And how do I improve my customer’s trust?” Don’t worry, I am here to show you the types of trust concerns that customers have, plus some simple tips to tackle those.

Here we go...

1. Will I Like My Product?

Will I? What if I don’t? Am I making the right decision?

One of the most common dilemmas in the mind of your customers is whether or not your product can match the expectations of your buyer... Since online shoppers are not able to touch, smell, or feel the product, it is important to make use of what they can do, see and read.

How do you easily mitigate this issue?

Apple provides us with a very good example of how they mitigate their trust issues.

1. They use high-quality images
2. They provide full product description

By making an extra effort in providing these two elements in your site, it helps your customers to know what to expect from your product.

2. Is There Anyone That I Can Rely upon Here?

This is for anyone who questions the importance of emotional connections. (You know who you are).
Customers often have bad experience while asking about your product. Either they receive their answers 2-3 business days (in which case potential customers may already bought from your competitor), or they have to experience a robot-based answering machine.

This is not good enough if you want to outperform your customers...
Deliver an interaction on “human” level on ‘signature moments'

What does this mean? Customers expect you to answer your email more frequently, not to mention equipping your call center with ‘humans’ instead of robots.

• Push your customer service beyond what is expected.
• Help your customers when in need.
• Go beyond the ordinary for them.

These are the keys in building customer trust, a way to deepen customer relationships through emotional connections.

3. Am I Paying with a Safe Payment System?

Your paying method may significantly help or discourage customers from making purchases from your site.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Is my payment gateway reliable and well known?
• Is my payment gateway really safe?
• Do I provide my customer with a number of payment methods ? (read:Razer CASH)

If all the answers here are yeses, then you got yourself a deal. However, most of us may not have chosen the best payment gateway for us, so let’s identify how do we get the best of our gateway...

A reliable payment gateway may go a long mile. With a well-known payment gateway, the lack of trust that customers initially possess will be complemented. In terms of security, make sure that your payment gateway is a PCI DSS compliant, a standard information security system that securely stores every credit card transactions.

One of the most efficient security systems is tokenization, a process where customer’s credit card data is replaced by a meaningless element, token. Tokenization is usually affiliated with one click payment , a feature that may be important for your loyal and returning customers. Find out more about tokenization and one click payment here.

Last but not the least... By providing more payment methods for your online shoppers, they will feel safe with the number of options provided to them... creating a “trustworthy” notion between you and your customers.

4. Where Is My Order?

Let’s take a moment to be a customer...
Lets say you just bought an item, which will be shipped for 7 business days or maybe more.

The chance is... You will be worried whether your order has been shipped or not, or whether it is going to be on time or not.
We all know that we want the items we just bought to appear magically in front of us, at least that’s what I wish for after shopping online.

Provide Tracking! An easy way to tackle this is to provide a tracking number for your customers... it is not hefty in terms of cost, but it will make a lot of difference for your customers.

5. Is This Site Legit?

The first impression of your site is important for anyone that visits your site, either it is a wanderer, potential customer, or even a customer.

If you have been online for the past 10 years, you would have known the changes in the design of sites... Older sites tend to provide little trust for the current customers, since today’s customers expect to be greeted with a good design. Just imagine your site as your actual storefront. Good designs will attract customers, while bad designs put off customers...

For me there are just two (2) things you need to have for a good site design..

1. Use real life human to attract emotional connection, which creates a sense of trust and legibility
2. Be precise to your target market

Having the precise target market stated inside your home page builds a connection with your target market, telling them that they have come into the right place.

6. What Will They Do with My Data?

Customers want their data safe, not to mention their personal data. Data such as name, address, and credit card information are sent through Internet channels to a company, creating a lack of trust by buyers.

It is definitely important for users to know that their privacy is not at stake... And this is how you tell them...

Your online business should provide privacy policy on their site to explain how you will not disclose, sell, trade, or rent personal information to outside parties without explicit consent.

That’s about it...

7. Am I Dealing with a Business I Trust?

Building a reputation takes time. I won’t have to tell you that... Trust is collated with your reputation. Both of which create the image of your business in your industry. Trust is created through both direct (lived experienced) as well as indirect experiences of others that influenced the overall brand reputation. It is a constant process, where a small negative evaluation can be the ultimate downfall...

I will leave you with one of my greatest tips... Treat your customers the way you want to be treated as a customer...

It is as simple as that.

Using these 7 issues and tips, I hope you can build your trust in terms of reputation and brand recognition. You should implement these 7 simple tips to get the best out of your online business. Remember, a big step is a small step done perfectly...