What should I do to gain customer trust? (& increase sales)

To build your ecommerce store into a business that will last, consider how to improve your reliability as a seller in the eyes of online shoppers. The good news is that it's not as difficult as you may think. Read this article to find out what you should do to gain customer trust that will lead to increased sales.

First and foremost, you need to offer a great product in order to have satisfied customers.

Your product must be:

• Well-made
• Not faulty, damaged, or have any parts missing
• Exactly match the photos on your website
• Match the product description on your website

If any parts are missing, the dimensions are wrong, the product is poorly-made, or it looks nothing like how you advertised it, you will only have customer complaints and returns to deal with. This is not going to build customer loyalty and your business will likely fail.

However, when customers receive their order exactly as shown online, you have a very high chance of positive feedback, repeat-purchases, and word-of-mouth recommendations of your business.

There are a few things that help customers feel comfortable when purchasing online. With so many scams, fake websites, identity and credit card theft, many customers are sceptical of brands they haven't used before.

To make a good first impression, make sure that your online presence is professional and makes customers feel at ease.

Here are some tips:

• Write thorough product listings so that customers know exactly what you are selling. Include product benefits, features, and accurate descriptions that sell your products in an authentic and responsible way. Use well-written copy with impeccable grammar and spelling. One quick way to turn off potential customers is to have an ecommerce store full of spelling mistakes and poor English.
• Include high-quality product photos. Low-resolution, small, amateur, or too few photos of the products will instantly prevent a sale.
• Make it easy to purchase. In terms of user experience, keep the number of steps required to select and complete online checkout minimal. When customers are ready to buy, they don't want it to be difficult.
• Create a professional, high-quality ecommerce website. If you decide to build a website, either hire an expert or make sure you can produce it yourself to a high standard. There's a lot of competition online from ecommerce businesses with excellent web design and functionality.

Customers will naturally distrust a brand that they don't know. Especially if your business is new and you don't have many customer reviews to share. Spending time perfecting your About Us page can make a difference.

Show your human side by:

• Including a photo of your ecommerce team if it's larger than three employees. If it is only yourself or another colleague, it can look sketchy to potential customers.
• Outline your company values and mission statement. This shows you take professionalism seriously and that your online business has been thought-through carefully.
• Share a story about the background of your business. Let your customers know a bit more about how your store started, the humble beginnings, or a personal story about why you chose your product niche.

A business website without contact details immediately sparks distrust and suspicion. Customers want to be able to contact a brand should they have questions or issues with their purchase. Make sure to include a business email address and telephone number at the very least.

When customers have questions about a product before or after buying, your customer service needs to be as close to perfection as possible. Again, there are many online businesses to compete with, so customers can choose to go to another seller if they have a bad experience.

You can read our article about best practices for ecommerce customer service.

Here are the main points:

• Respond to customers asap when you receive messages, emails, queries, and comments online. Leaving customers waiting for a reply shows unprofessionalism and can cause you to lose your seller reputation.
• Be courteous in all your communication. Sometimes buyers can get stressed and impatient with your brand or service. Always reply in a calm and polite manner.
• Always offer a solution. In any situation where the customer is dissatisfied, make sure to have a solution for them. For example, decide when it's appropriate to offer an apology, product exchange, refund, partial refund, or gift card.
• Listen to customers on all platforms. Don't forget to check on your social media accounts for messages, comments, and mentions. With so many communication channels, it can be easy to overlook customer enquiries if not monitored regularly. It's worth making sure you spot both positive and negative feedback online so you can respond accordingly. Staying silent may cause customers to believe you don't care about good service.

Cybersecurity is a big issue and potential risk for both buyers and sellers. Buyers are wary of being scammed, and having their credit card details or identity stolen. Sellers are at risk of being hacked and having their customer details taken.

To lower this risk to your customers, it's important to make sure the payment methods you provide online are safe and protected. Well-known and reliable website apps are one way to boost payment security and buyer protection. Displaying the app badge on your website shows the customer they can trust your payment gateway.

Additionally, provide several trusted payment options. When customers have their preferred payment method available, they are more comfortable making a purchase. Examples of popular payment methods include MasterCard, Visa Debit, American Express, PayPal, Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, and Google Pay.

Customer reviews are one of the biggest and powerful ways to influence a potential sale. Online shoppers trust the opinions of other online shoppers. If your product already has good feedback, it shows that the product was as described on the website, is of good quality, and that there were no issues with the payment transaction.

How should you show customer reviews?

• Let customers rate their purchase out of five stars.
• Allow a space for customers to write their product review.
• You might want customers to show their first name.
• Optionally, allow customers to upload their photos of the product.

Asking for customers to share their feedback about your service and the product they ordered shows that you care as a business about customer satisfaction. This goes a long way for building customer trust and loyalty, standing out from your competitors, and gaining valuable knowledge about your target audience.

There are a few options for receiving feedback, however, it's worth sending an email to customers a few days after their purchase. If you wait too long, customers will be less inclined to respond.

How should you ask customers for feedback?

• Send an email with a link to a post-sale survey. Here, let them rate their purchase and leave a comment.
• Offer an incentive to encourage reviews. This is useful for new online businesses with no customer reviews. You can reward reviews with a discount code for the customer's next sale.
• Choose where the review will be shown. Decide whether to use the feedback privately or publicly for other potential buyers to see.

By following these simple steps, you will soon have a brand that is trusted by online customers. This involves answering queries before a sale, showcasing your ecommerce store as professional with a high-quality buying experience, providing reliable payment methods, genuine customer reviews, and prompt after-sales support.

Once you excel in these areas, you will benefit from customers recommending your brand to others, repeat purchases, excellent online reputation, glowing reviews, and increased product sales.