How you can increase the trustworthiness of your eCommerce website

These days, people prefer to comfort themselves by choosing and buying products from online stores (eCommerce stores) rather than physical ones.

A decade ago, when eCommerce stores came into existence, people could not trust them enough to buy products from those platforms. This was due to some of the reasons involving a lack of accountability and trust.

As of the 2019 report published by the National Retail Federation, approximately 30.2% of fraudulent activities were attributed to online-only sales. This sparked a lot of distrust among the consumers of online retail.

The lack of trust is due to many other reasons apart from security, such as your website’s design and ease of navigation. Yes, that’s right! These factors affect the trust that consumers put on your website. 

This is why it is crucial to increase the trustworthiness of your eCommerce website.

Let’s check how you can gain the trust of your potential consumers right from the moment they visit your eCommerce website by considering this simple checklist as follows: 

Before diving deep into the checklist, keep in mind your target audience for your eCommerce website first. 

Now, let’s get into it.

Simplify Navigation and User Experience

First things first, you need to design your website in a way that is easy to navigate for your visitors. They need to feel like the website is worth browsing. If the website is cluttered with unnecessary elements that add to the confusion for your visitors, then they are most likely to drop off before they even start window shopping. To reduce bounce rates, your website needs to have an intuitive layout, clear categories, and powerful search filters among other features. 

Make Your Website Mobile Responsive

Along with simplifying the UI-UX of your website design, you should optimize it for mobile phones. The responsiveness of the website on smartphones will ensure its seamless accessibility to your target audience. The more easily accessible the website is, the more chances of people buying products from your website

Ensure Cross-Browser Compatibility

Making your website mobile responsive is not enough. You also need to make sure that your website is compatible with all the browsers available out there. The main reason behind doing this is obvious. Different people have their preferred browsers. 

Incorporate High-Quality Visuals and Product Images

The images used for your product representation also play an important role in visitor satisfaction. If the images used for product display are blurry and of low quality, it will leave a bad impression on your potential customers. Also, incorporate magnifying image functionality for easy examination of the product. Overall, the website should be visually aesthetic and pleasing to the eye.

Optimize Website Speed and Performance

A slow-loading website is a sure-shot way to increase bounce rates of your website, and you don’t want that! The speed of your website should be optimized throughout the visitor journey from browsing to the final purchase. You don’t want your potential customers to abandon their carts just because they found your website slow. Use proper image compression, leverage browser caching, and choose a reliable hosting provider to optimize your website’s performance. 

Implement Clear Call-to-Actions (CTAs)

This factor is less about trustworthiness and more about persuading your visitors to buy your products. Proper call-to-action placement throughout your website will ensure that your visitors have an easy time navigating your website and purchasing your product. Using contrasting colors and making CTAs action-oriented will make them more noticeable and effective. 

Secure the Website with an SSL Certificate

One of the most important aspects to increase the trustworthiness of your website is to increase its security. Visitors need to know that they are browsing on a secure platform and that their data is safe. This is why securing your website with an SSL certificate is very crucial. This way, all the data transmission that takes place between the visitor’s device and the website is encrypted. Display trust seals and security badges to further instill confidence in visitors. 

Incorporate Customer Reviews and Testimonials

You must show your new visitors that your website has served a wide variety of customers in the past to gain their trust. Customer reviews and testimonials do just that! They are important to display the social proof and credibility of your website. Keep in mind that positive reviews can significantly influence purchase decisions and build trust in your brand. If you are a newbie eCommerce store owner, then offer incentives and offers to those who will write a feedback/review for your website. 

Provide Multiple Payment Options

It is paramount that you provide as many payment methods as possible to your customers. Your customers should not feel left out by knowing that their preferred payment option is not available on your website. No matter how amazing your website or product is, if you do not provide enough payment options for your consumers, they will abandon their carts. Along with providing multiple payment options, the shopping cart experience and checkout process should also be intuitive for a seamless experience for your customers.

Integrate Social Media and Sharing Features

Your customers will want to showcase their favorite products to their friends and relatives before making the final purchase decision. This is why integrating social media and sharing features is very important. You need to ensure that your visitors can easily share your product details with anyone across their social media profiles. This will indirectly help you increase your brand’s reachability and awareness and attract new visitors.

That’s About It!

Developing an eCommerce website can be an overwhelming task. However, if you approach it with a well-thought-out checklist, not only will it enhance the trustworthiness of your website in the eyes of potential customers, but it will also significantly boost the likelihood of your eCommerce business ascending the ladder of success faster than you can imagine. 

 Follow the WingsTech Blog series for more insights on IT and Digital Marketing!