A new report released today by The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) focussed on the lack of trust still shown by UK consumers when shopping online. The main factors holding back these potential online shoppers were : lack of trust as the main factor; fears over personal security; consumers did not trust companies that sell online.
Trying to bridge that gap and build consumer confidence is always an ongoing battle. We at NSM, slightly covered this last week in our Protx rebrands as SagePay post. Giving sellers just 3 weeks to inform their customer base that their payment gateway provider is totally having a full overhaul is pushing it in my opinion.
eCommerce sellers can do more to convince shoppers that their details are safe and secure as highlighted in the last 2 points of the report.
*Displaying imagery that you are using a secure payment gateway is always a good starting point.
* Have a well written FAQ page, detailing the most common asked questions regarding payments, delivery and returns.
* Provide a sales hotline number for people who might not want to buy online but are more willing to give their payment details over the phone.
* Create a feedback page where you can post customer testimonials or allow customers to provide reviews on your product pages.
* Sometimes poor design and layout gives off a feeling of insecurity and if consumers don’t like your eCommerce site designwise they probably won’t trust you with their sensitive data.
* eMail marketing is effective way to gain customer loyalty. But don’t abuse this issue of trust by sending out marketing shots every-other-day. Also, if a customer chooses to opt-out of your eMail shot then make sure you comply with their request.
* Track your online reputation. If a consumer starts posting about the lack of service you provided, or late delivery then deal with it. Overlooking disgruntled and unsatisfied customers could seriously harm the future of your eCommerce venture.
Resellers or Dropshippers have it twice as hard in my opinion. They might process the sale online without a hiccup but they are then in the hands of the distributor. In these tough economic times, make sure your supplier/distributor is sending packages on-time and they are not placing their brandname anywhere on the packaged product or invoice. This only leads to confusion with the consumer and they may go elsewhere next time they decide to purchase again online.
Tackling consumer confidence head-on with pro-active measures will see eCommerce blossom in the up-and-coming months ahead. Online sellers have to make sure their site measures up in gaining the all-important trust factor.
I don’t think this is the first time Protx have pulled this stunt. I seem to remember someone telling me they had to re-do all their client’s ecom sites because of it.
I’m really interested to know what these “conversion rate experts” do. All the ecom sites I’ve know have always had poor conversion rate despite being good solid sites with the usual “confidence builders”.
It did seem pretty rushed the whole Protx to Sage Pay rebrand didn’t it?