When you want to increase the reach of your business globally, several other businesses are aiming for the same. The increase in the speed of the internet and the availability of smart devices at the lower rates is revolutionizing the market.
As per Statista, the statistical growth of ecommerce is gaining its pace, year over year. From $1.34 trillion in 2014 to $2.84 trillion in 2018, now it is expected to cross $4 trillion by 2020 and reach $4.88 trillion in 2021.
You will adore the fact that the path you chose will take your business beyond the horizon. But, it is open-heartily welcoming the challenges as well. The growing competition is the first to count, and trustworthiness is the other. Since people have so many brands to select the products of their preference, it will be tough to earn the faith of the customers.
In the digital market, when people talk about trust, the first thing that surfaces in everyone’s mind is security certifications. Let us tell you about the security patches that you must update your store with.
- Get an SSL certificate for your store: First things first, if you want to sell from your store directly, take an SSL certificate, and make your store secure to conduct transactions. If you are self-hosting your site, keep the SSL certificate in mind while choosing the hosting plan for your store. Few web hosting platforms enable free SSL certificate along with the hosting plans. Whereas, few others have SSL added for free, only for business hosting sites. In case you have already purchased the hosting for your store, you can opt for the annual renewal of SSL certification and buy it.SSL certification enables the encryption of the data when it is traversing between the servers before reaching the intended user. When you are selling the products from your store, the customer opts for the digital payment methods. If you don’t keep your site secure, the crucial information like credit/debit card credentials will be at risk. To safeguard such information, encryption with SSL is the requirement of your business. It affirms the identity of the user and improvises the ranking of ecommerce stores as per the algorithm update of Google.
- Add security badges: Only adding a green lock is not enough to make your ecommerce store secure. As per the survey of Anonymizer Inc. in 2012, more than 45% of customers are concerned about online thefts before purchasing online. That’s why compliance of your ecommerce store with the security badges is a must to build the trust of customers.
We know that they are quite much in the number and it’s tough to decide which are more profitable for you. While selecting the security badges, keep the end goal in mind, like whether you want to secure the payments or wish to defend your store against malware attacks. For payments, PayPal’s badge is competent enough, whereas, McAfee, Verisign, TRUSTe, and a few others are known to secure your website against hackers.
- Update your policy pages: For swift transactions from your web store, you need to keep your policy pages updated. The cookie and cache policy page and terms of service are common to all the websites on the web. Additionally, you have to add order and return policy, refund and cancellation policy, payment policy, shipping policy (of your shipping partner).But, that’s not all that to make your website trustworthy! It takes time to build trust, and you have to give that much of time to your customers. Additionally, you have to put some extra efforts to let people trust in you and your business. Now, we are sharing a few ideas that you must not neglect to improve the reliance of your customers on your brand.
- Update contact information: Keep your contact page updated with your working email address, contact number, address, and business hours. Though your physical address is not that important when you are conducting online business, the physical address is a lot more valuable for building the trust of customers. Integrate the Google Maps there and update your Google My Business page. On the one hand, it will help you gain the trust of the customers, as they can cross-check over the internet and find you physically present somewhere on the globe. It’s what they learn about the other online frauds that they read about. Even if it doesn’t benefit you at large, it won’t do any harm to your brand. On the other hand, it will improve the local SEO of your store. Thus, your audience can easily find your business, place orders, interact with you personally, and can improve the count of visitors in local flea market events. Also, when your real customer’s checkout at your store and share their experiences on your social handles, people will connect with you more easily.For the ease of your customers, add a contact number and official email address on the header and footer section of your website so that it will be visible on every page of your website.
- Engage via social handles: By now, you have already come across several businesses using social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest to grow their business. You can gain customer trust and engagement on your ecommerce websites with the help of these platforms. Don’t simply build your pages on these social handles, but connect with the groups and communities of your interest and business niche. The more you will interact, the more people will know you in-person as well as knowledge about your brand. In the beginning, interaction is very important for you to bring brand awareness in the market. At the later stage, you can promote your products and services along with the link to place an order. This will automatically improve the traffic on your store by redirecting the interested viewers to your website.
- Flaunt your recognitions: If you are a startup business, you have to wait for some time to add some feathers to your cap. But, if you are an offline business coming online, you surely have a few awards to count in. By adding the recognition you have gained over time, you can gain the trust of the customers.Startup businesses can share the press release of the product launch or events they are planning to participate in, by adding the information about them in the news & media section. You can also talk about the coverage of your business in some magazines or newspapers. Even if you think that it’s not that significant, you will be slowly growing as a brand, and the coverage will showcase your growth journey.
- Educate your customers: You are not the only brand selling certain products in the market. There are several businesses like yours, some are your competitors, and others are market leaders. Everyone is motivated to sell their products/ services, but no one is educating their customers about the utility and benefits of the product. You can make a difference in the market by educating your customers about the utility of the product and how your products stand out.With your blog section, you can make engaging content and market it to educate customers. When you pursue the customers for their benefit, they will surely turn to your business for their needs. This approach may probably take more time to build the trust of the customers, but it will stick for long, as you will be building a community around your business. Also, The blogs are known to improve the ranking of your business in the SERPs. Thus, it will bring a long-term and favorable impact on your business.
- Refine your customer service: Customer service is not only about the post-deployment services. Rather it starts from the interaction of the visitor on your site and ends with the post-order services. Be it email support, telephonic assistance, video-call support, or live chat assistance, your responsiveness will bring better results on the adapted method. With either of the mode of support, offer 24*7 support to your customers, it will help you build the engagement of the customers in your store. Ecommerce websites are known to interact with your customers in the live mode and assist them as per their search pattern on your store. Using customer service software or live chat software, you can give customers the offers on the product they are planning to buy. You can help them answer their queries if they are finding one in the FAQ section. Keep an eye on the rate of customer satisfaction. We know that holding the customer for the last 2 minutes to complete the survey form is very critical, but it is important for your reference. When you know the reasons for the dissatisfaction of customers about your services or advice for the products, you have the chance to improve and give your best. Be firm to your customers and stay connected with the help of newsletters or email marketing.
With these tactics, gaining trust in the digital community will be a lot easier for you. Just be persistent in your approach, and you will naturally be able to build the customer’s trust. Start your ecommerce journey with reliable platforms like Builderfly; this will also aid in the growing reputation of your business.
