10 signs of trust that your online store should convey

We have all experienced doubts about an online store sending us unreliable signals. They can be technical problems, but also related to usability or the shopping experience itself or to the online reputation of the site. What you end up with is a site that is filled with multiple obstacles to online sales.

The worst thing that can happen to you from the other side, that of the store manager, is that you are not even aware of what is happening. For this reason, we have compiled here 10 aspects that you should work on to generate trust in your visitors.

We see how 17% of users openly say that they will not continue with the purchase process if they do not trust enough to enter their payment data. 12% are alerted if there are technical errors, and there are also 11% who, if the return policy is not satisfactory, will not continue shopping.

With this in mind, let´s kick off our top 10 trust signals.

In this blog we have talked a lot about the relevance of social proof in the decision-making process and in the final conversion.

Try to include this data in a transversal way throughout your website, from the home page to the product sheets and, of course, in the categories. Keep in mind that they often receive organic traffic or function as landing pages for SEM campaigns.

Do not forget to make an efficient markup for snippets either. Thanks to them, your search results will show those reviews with their stars and so on. It is a click magnet.

Embroidering the return policy has a direct impact on sales, as we have just seen in the Statista analysis.

Making this aspect clear is a way to act on the fears and doubts of the customer, especially the new customer who does not yet have more references of our business or an experience that gives them confidence.

Make this text an important element on your store; do not hide it in internal pages linked from the footer or in FAQs that imply an additional effort for the customer. Hidden things generate doubts.

I do not mean including it in all the product sheets in its entirety, but you can highlight in them the most interesting points for the customer -among them, this one-, that is always a sign of trust appreciated.

Put yourself for a moment in the user's shoes: would you type your credit card details on a store belonging to someone you do not know? Neither would I.

All contact information should be unambiguous, including a phone number and physical address (where it exists). In the vast majority of cases no one will call you, but it is one of the most important signs of trust because, in some way, it implies a greater commitment or seriousness than an email or a form.

The customer may not know you yet, but they certainly know VISA, MasterCard or PayPal. Users search for references that give us a certain peace of mind before making a purchase. If these institutions trust your website, they are making an indirect recommendation.

The same happens with every award or every mention received on a specialized media. Do not hesitate to include and highlight it.

This is something basic when we talk about security and trust in eCommerce. It is essential that, when entering our online store, the user unequivocally sees the padlock icon that represents a secure site.

In fact, some browsers such as Chrome do not hesitate to identify sites that lack SSL certificates as insecure with very clear messages.

Another thing we usually insist on in this blog is the user experience. Not only do we need a site that is able to meet the user's needs and that works technically: we must also make sure that it does so in a pleasant and smooth way.

If we want to generate trust, we must take particular care of aspects such as good architecture, optimal loading speed, representative images, descriptive texts and, of course, the best possible experience from mobile devices.

In too many cases, the importance of the noble and mistreated art of copywriting is overlooked.

As much as technology continues to advance, the text is still the way we have to express most of the benefits and aspects of the product, its function and, of course, the way to convince a user to buy.

If we fall short in descriptions, have misspellings, text in other languages or copy and pasted from the manufacturer's website... we are sending very negative signals in terms of trust.

You would say: I already have the links to my Instagram and Facebook profiles. To that I will answer that it is a first step, but it is not enough just to appear.

Show that these profiles are alive and there is a real and active community behind them. Many e-commerces have found in them a way to activate those social signals we were talking about before. Add comments and photos (always with permission) into the shopping experience. It is the famous and effective user-generated content.

Maybe you think that nobody reads that page in eCommerce, maybe you have even dispensed with creating it because you consider that it does not provide value... Well, you would be wrong.

We are never tire of insisting that the user wants/needs to know more about you. Tell them where you come from, what motivates you, who is part of the team, what your office is like... all of this together is a great sign of trust.

This has been critical for as long as business has existed: you must deliver what you commit to.

If you say that you deliver in 24 hours, that the products are vegan or that returns are always free of charge... you must go with it to the last consequences whenever possible. Keep in mind that these non-compliances are one of the things that most upset customers and spread like wildfires.