How to create a trustworthy online presence
Let’s picture a scenario together: you just opened your online store, or updated your website, but still customers seem deterred to buy from you. As you want your business to grow and thrive you analyse what is going wrong, you ask your customers for feedback and you identify the main issue: a lack of trustworthiness.
Trustworthiness is a very important aspect of your online presence. If there is any shadow of a doubt about what your business sells, how transparent it is, or how good the quality of your products is, it penetrates your potential customers’ minds, and their visit to your website very likely will result in a lost sale.
But do not fear, at Thrive we focus on making sure your website and your brand are as trustworthy as they can be. We can achieve this together by positioning your brand in the right way and appealing to the right customer base while highlighting the quality, history, and customer reviews of your brand. There are a few areas you can already tackle before we can help you elevate your online presence and give you a trustworthy and professional website. We have condensed these into 6 useful tips for you.
- Reviews
Make sure to add the best reviews your products and business receive in a visible place on your website, this can typically be on your homepage or even on your about page. Depending on the ecommerce platform your website is built on, you can also enable customers to leave a review on each product/service you offer. Reviews add trustworthiness to your brand, show customers that your products/services are being purchased and can sometimes pre-empt any questions customers might have throughout their purchasing decision.
- Empathise and engage with your audience
Buying online is quick and easy but can be very impersonal if done incorrectly. We are, after all, humans. It is therefore of vital importance to show your audience your human aspect. Show them the team behind the scenes processing their orders and handcrafting their products. Bring them on the journey of why and how you came up with your business in the first place.
This enables you to overcome consumer scepticism by building an emotional connection, sharing your experience and expertise with your audience, which in turn helps them trust your brand and increases your chances of converting visitors into customers.
- Availability
Being available and at your customers’ disposal goes a very long way. We understand, however, that you might not have the time to answer every single query or address every buying concern raised by your customers as you are busy creating your products, offering your services, or running your business. Solutions are plentiful, from a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page, to an automated chatbot where you can set up automatic replies, through accurate and detailed product descriptions.
Alternatively, if you highly value personal contact with your customers and are willing to make time to always answer questions, you can integrate live chats, contact forms, messaging options through your social networks or third-party marketing tools that also enable you to up-sell other products.
- Consistency
Your online presence should be consistent throughout all your channels and your website. When designing your website it is important to convey trust to your users, by having a consistent branding throughout all your pages as to avoid creating any doubts in your customers’ mind. Moreover, you should constantly update and maintain your website so you can ensure that your ecommerce platform is running at full capacity and customers see the care, effort and attention to detail, typical of a real, trustworthy business.
- Certificates, awards and press
If your business won any awards or has any certificates or trust badges make sure to include these on your website as it will create brand recognition and trust with the customer by showing professionalism and authenticity. Another factor that automatically creates trust for your customers is press articles: they show recognition of your brand, grant exposure to an established audience, increase traffic to your website and have SEO benefits.
If this is something you need, we suggest you read Shopify’s blog on clever ways to get free press coverage without budget.
- Secure checkout system
A secure checkout system is extremely important for any ecommerce activity. Nobody wants to add their card details onto a website that does not feel trustworthy due to concerns of being hacked or scammed. Therefore, at Thrive we decided to design websites using Shopify as it keeps payment information and data safe via encryption. Shopify Payments is also PCI compliant and supports 3D secure checkouts. You can read more about it here, but if you still feel unsure on how to set up your payment gateways give us a call and we can help you keep all your business information and data safe as well as your clients’.
By tackling the above points you will increase your website’s trustworthiness and take the first steps on the path of success.
Nevertheless, you are not alone and if you find yourself in a bit of a pickle in deciding which apps to use to achieve your desired functionality, or how to showcase reviews on your website, don’t fret or be shy, pick up the phone and get in touch with Thrive.
