Source: blog.marlon.be

Building an e-Commerce site online is easy. Building trust and credibility with customers, on the other hand, requires some commitment. Unless you have a well known brand, you must take all necessary steps to build trust and achieve credibility. Most shoppers are still wary of online shops and don’t want to give their credit card number to just any web store. Thankfully, there are some steps you can take to build credibility to your store by taking the following simple steps. The EU directive 2011/83/EU even imposes many of those trust actions.

• Be Transparent and Forthright
• Post Your Phone Number
• Use a Custom SSL
• Publish Your Store’s Policies
• Display Customer Testimonials and Awards & Recognitions
• Don’t Forget Communicating After the Sale

Be Transparent and Fortright

The Internet is a wonderful place, but trust is still an issue, especially for online purchasing. Clearly posting your objectives, motives and goals will help bring in shoppers and hopefully increase your ROI (Return on Investment). Personalized 'About Us' and Customer Service pages are a good place to start. Be clear and informative. Share extra tidbits about you and your company. Make your visitors trust you with their money and become regular shoppers.

Don’t be afraid to add pictures and even video. Zappos.com has built its reputation around customer service. It even has a dedicated 'About Us' sub-domain to communicate with their customers. See about.zappos.com. Building trust is crucial and should be a top priority. Find the factors that will help you build trust and apply them vigorously.

EU directive 2011/83/EU requires you to publish identity of the trader (company name, legal business model, physical address).  Use the contact page on your website

Post your Phone Number

Another simple method to add validity to your site is by posting your business phone number. Don’t be afraid publishing it in a prominent location, such as in the header of your web store. Offering a toll-free number where customers can reach you will be an added bonus.

Let your customer reach you in other methods too- email, contact page, or even live chat.

Use a Custom SSL

In e-Commerce, secure checkout and customer information protection are critical and mandated. Customers want a safe and secure shopping experience without worrying about having their credit card information or privacy compromised.

All Magento Go plans are secured with shared SSL (Secure Socket Layer.) With a shared SSL certificate, all transactions will be secured and signed by the Magento Go shared SSL certificate.

The Magento Go shared SSL certificate

Adding your own custom SSL has crediblity and security benefits. When you purchase a SSL certificate with a SSL service provider, you enter your own company name and pertinent information that is required to create a SSL certificate. With a custom SSL, transactions will be signed under your company. As an added benefit, SSL service providers also offer seals that you can embed in your web store. Clicking on this seal pops-up a window that clearly states your ownership of the domain and security details trusted and verified by the SSL service provider. Learn more about Custom SSL.

Publish Your Store’s Policies

Online stores operate differently then Brick-and-Mortar stores. It is not easy for a customer to just return items. There are shipping costs involved. Publishing your store policies will ensure additional transparency by clearly describing your terms.

Within Europe, there is quite some detailed legislation about this topic: EU directive 2011/83/EU

The following policies should be considered for publishing:

• A Privacy Policy page that clearly states safeguarding of customer’s personal, financial and online purchase activities.
• A Terms and Conditions page covering Reviews and Comments, Risk of Loss, Applicable Local Laws, and much more.
• Revocation right: EU directive 2011/83/EU gives a consumer the default right to return goods within 14 days. You need to provide the instructions (e.g. a form) on how to invoke the revocation right. You have the duty to inform the customer on your website, and when sending an order confirmation on the revocation right he has. You are oblidged to refund the customer if goods are send back using the revocation right. If you forget to inform the consumer about his revocation right, the revocation right is extended from 14 days to 1 year. There are product & services where you are allowed to announce the revocation right is not applicable: custom made goods, perishable goods, media (CD, DVD, software, newspapers, magazines). Please inform then clearly about this exception
• Shipping and Return Policies should also be clearly stated. EU directive 2011/83/EU makes it mandatory to be very clear about the shipping costs and who will pay the return shipping costs.

Other customer service policies to consider: Safe Shopping Guarantee, FAQs.

Display Customer Testimonials and Awards & Recognitions & Certifications

Don’t be afraid to ask for testimonials from your customers. Feedback from customers will help you improve your customer service procedures and fix areas that need attention. Post customer testimonials proudly. Even create a dedicated page when you receive more feedback.
 

If you received awards and been recognized in your industry, post them also. Link the awards to the sites that granted you this recognition for more credibility.

Even more important is to have trust giving certifications visible on your website:

Don’t Forget Communicating After the Sale

The easiest way to lose a customer is by ignoring them after their first order through your store. It takes time and ingenuity to market and promote your site to attract new customers. But once they have placed their first order, you must now properly maintain this new relationship and continue building trust so they remain loyal customers, and even invite others to shop at your web store.

Source / read more: https://go.magento.com/blog