Hey Retail CEO, it’s time to talk about those abandoned carts or that high bounce rate on your online stores website. The main reason why customers may be abandoning their carts or quickly exiting your site may be because you haven’t established enough trust with your potential customer the moment they landed on your website.

As consumers, when we exchange money for an item or service, we essentially are exchanging and building trust. Someone pays for your product and in return, you promise to deliver their product. It’s a simple process but when it comes to online shopping, many eCommerce brands fail to build customer trust online.

This affects customer retention rates because if there is no trust that was built with the consumer as soon as they land on a website, you can guarantee they won’t make it to the payment page.

This is one of the main reasons why a 2020 online retail study shows that 18% of shoppers abandon a checkout cart because they didn’t trust eCommerce sites with their credit card information.

With the eCommerce industry growing and more brands becoming available to shop online, how can you start to build customer trust online with potential consumers who stumble across your online store, especially if you’re a small online boutique?

In this post, you are going to learn the top 5 ways to build customer trust online so that you can increase your;

• Online product sales
• Referral rates
• Customer repeat purchase rate
• Email list

and more! 

1. Have an SSL Certificate to Build Customer Trust Online

Regardless of if you have an eCommerce store or not, it’s very important to have a domain name with an SSL certificate. Take a look at this screenshot of our website and pay close attention to our domain name in the browser. 

See that lock in the browser to the left of our domain name?

That’s how you know our site, or any site, is secure to shop on. An SSL certificate will 

• Protect user data
• Affirm your identity (there’s so many fake websites out there!)
• Satisfy PCI/DSS requirements (basically to accept payments legally online!)
• Improve customer’s trust because their data and payment information is secured

 

2. Creating a Brand Story with an “About Us” or “Our Story” page

It’s no secret that people want to buy from real people. It’s also no secret that people love a good story. Your potential customers  aren’t just looking for the right products to buy.

They’re also searching for the right businesses and missions to support. Consumers are becoming very aware of where they spend their money and they want to make sure they are purchasing products with a company that is moral and has ethical standards of operations.

 As an eCommerce entrepreneur, it’s your job to establish, maintain, and nurture authentic relationships with your past, current, and future customers. 

An easy way to do this is to share why your business is passionate about solving a certain problem or delivering a certain product or service.

If you don’t know, I own an online boutique called SHIFT StyleHouse and if you check out the Our Story Page, you’ll learn about Shift StyleHouse’s mission, more about me as the founder, why I started, who SHIFT serves and more! It helps my customers know that they are purchasing from a company that understands them as a person!

3. Have Product or Service Demonstration videos

Video is the rave for all industries right now and they are powerful marketing tools. This is mainly because it’s easier to capture a person’s attention with video and retail their attention longer than just images or text. 

• Almost 80% of people state that product videos give them more confidence when purchasing a product.
• 73% more visitors who watch product videos will buy and 57% are less surprised by products with video.
• Businesses that use videos see on average 34% higher online conversion rates than those without videos

When it comes to shopping online, you have to remember that your potential customers can’t physically touch the product, try the product on, see the true color and more.

Providing videos for your products fills that gap. Use videos on your websites, social media accounts and even in emails! If you visit my boutique, Shift StyleHouse Instagram, you will find all sorts of videos that help the customer feel like they are shopping in store for the product and this helps with higher click through rates! 

4. Have a live chat option to build customer trust online

As consumers, we understand the power or artificial intelligence and it serves its purpose in many industries. However, when it comes to shopping online and we run across a certain problem or question, it’s nice to chat to a real person in real time. 

 Live chat can help nurture and build relationships with new shoppers who may have never come across your brand before. Take a look at the statistics below of having a Live Chat feature on your site.

• Roughly 44% of online customers say that having questions answered by a live person while purchasing something is one of the most important features of a website.
• Over half of consumers are more likely to repurchase from a company who offer live chat support, and 79% of businesses say offering live chat has had a positive effect on sales, revenue, and customer loyalty

For my brand, Shift StyleHouse, I understand that our customers, and potential customers, have questions they would love answered in real time since they aren’t at a physical store to ask an employee. To fill that gap, I’ve added a chat feature to my store. Check out the image below!

If you are an eCommerce store running a Shopify website, I recommend checking out Chatra for live chat features on your website.

5. Having Personalized Emails to Build Consumer Trust Online

Customers are bombarded with emails from eCommerce brands everyday. It’s your job to have your emails stand out, have a high open rate and high click through rate to get them back on to your site.

Creating personalized emails will make the customer feel as though you actually care about them and not just about getting them to buy your product.

 This is where I recommend looking for an email provider that has personalized options to place certain customer’s emails in segment groups. This way, you can create emails that personally reflect that customer’s last purchase choice. Here’s some ways to add personalization to your email.

• Add first name greetings to email subjects
• Personalized product recommendations based on last purchases
• Customized thank you emails

Building Customer Trust Online Today

So Retail CEO, hopefully I convinced you to finally take the time to look at your online boutique shopping experience and ask yourself, if you were a new customer, would you trust purchasing from your own store? Let me know how you build customer trust online with your boutique in the comments below!

Ready to scale your store’s sales? Schedule a Retail CEO Day with me. During this intensive half day session, we’ll do a deep dive to identify your sales gaps opportunities and how to boost your revenue all in one day!

I’m a formally educated corporate retail buyer, stylist, educator and boutique owner and I know the industry VERY well.  I’ve worked in retail for my entire career. As a corporate buyer for nearly 15 years, managing over $500 million in annual revenue and thousands of products, I know what I’m talking. Now, it’s my turn to give back and teach you! Apply to work with me today!