How Does Customer Trust Drive Ecommerce Success?

Chad Faith, Director of Content, Smartsites

Dec 8th 2021

With the pandemic, many brick-and-mortar businesses are shifting to ecommerce to continue their business operations. Ecommerce currently makes up 16.1% of all U.S sales, making it a big market to tap into. Understandably, the shopping experience online is different from that of shopping at physical stores. How do you make the shift and provide personalized experiences for your customer when you’re no longer interacting face-to-face? Many shoppers, such as baby boomers and seniors, might be uncomfortable with online shopping, especially with new brands as they are unable to touch, feel, and try a product. They might be wary of poor product quality, the long delays in delivering time, and worse of all, scams.

To receive customers’ trust, ecommerce businesses must establish an online presence via organic SEO and become reliable sellers through building a positive selling history. They must be able to answer consumers’ questions professionally and provide quality assurance. A money-back guarantee will also help. You can also include logos of your payment providers, trust seals, trust badges, and have an SSL certificate to make your store look more legitimate. It is important to minimize any concerns or resistance associated with online purchases.

Are you an ecommerce business owner looking for ways to increase your sales revenue and develop a loyal customer base? Customer trust is incredibly important for driving ecommerce success. There are many ways to establish customer trust and confidence in your brand and your products. Continue reading to learn more about building customer trust and how it drives ecommerce success.

Reviews

Before purchasing a product, most online shoppers will look at the product or brand reviews. Similar to having a salesperson in a brick-and-mortar setting, you should aim to provide third-party reviews and recommendations on your website and product pages. Allowing customers to submit photographs and videos as part of your reviews system will let you showcase your customer community and distinguish your brand from your competitors. Having a wide range of positive customer reviews helps to show that you are a trusted and popular ecommerce business, building customers’ confidence in your services. Your customers will be more compelled to buy products if they see positive reviews, boosting your ecommerce sales significantly.

Personalization

PPC advertisements are a great way of generating awareness of your brand to new customers. However, the personalization of services has an impact on the purchasing decisions of many customers. While you may not be able to deliver the type of personalized service provided in regular retail stores, there are other ways you can make your customer feel valued and listened to.

For example, you can use live chat to engage with potential customers and answer any queries they may have. This shows customers that you are easily contactable, reliable, and value customer service, improving their opinion of your ecommerce business.

You can also collect leads from potential visitors based on the products they browse, the pages they click on, and how long they spend on your online store. You can utilize email marketing automation tools to nurture leads and provide more relevant marketing. Customer-generated content is great for driving conversions and increasing repeat purchases. When customers trust your business and your products, they are more likely to click on personalized ads and make a purchase.

Creating customer groups, such as VIP groups, and giving them access to specific products or categories at discounted rates will also be a great way to encourage sales. You can also utilize dynamic personalization, app push notification, SMS marketing, and more! These strategies are a great way to advertise products based on your customer’s browsing and buying behavior.

Zero-Party Data

Zero-party data is a component of first-party data where a customer proactively and intentionally shares information with an ecommerce business. When your customers trust you with their data, you will be able to receive direct customer information such as communication preferences, product preferences, purchase intentions, and customized account configurations.

Zero-party data also provides businesses with highly accurate and reliable data of the customer so they can curate relevant advertisements and offer products the customer would be interested in, such as coffee, products for toddlers, or things needed for a family camping trip.

This personalized and targeted marketing is incredibly effective in improving customer experience by helping customers purchase what they are looking for, driving sales for your ecommerce. Your customer will be sure to appreciate your quick and easy interface since they will be able to find what they want in an efficient way.

Money-Back Guarantee

Offering a full money-back guarantee shows your customers that you are confident in the quality of your products. This, in turn, builds the customers’ trust and confidence in your products. Most importantly, it provides them a sense of security and assurance that what they are purchasing is what they are getting, offering customers a risk-free way to try out your products. If your first-time customers enjoy your services or products, they will be likely to engage in repeated purchasing behavior, thereby becoming an integral part of your loyal customer base.

The Importance of Building Customer Trust

It is incredibly important for an ecommerce business to continuously work on building customer trust. When you build trust, you will be able to sell more! Customers are more likely to purchase products from a trustworthy site, even if another ecommerce site offers the same product at a lower price. By being committed to increasing customer trust, it will set you apart from the competition, allowing you to enjoy a larger customer base and greater sales. Start working on increasing customer trust today to drive the success of your ecommerce business.

About the author

SmartSites is a full service digital agency offering website design and development, SEO, and PPC. Our diverse team of designers, developers, and strategists is over 200 people strong and spans across the globe. Since our inception in 2011, we have completed over 600 projects, and have received only 5 star reviews across Google+, Yelp, and Facebook. We are young, motivated and continually growing.