The trust issue in E-Commerce
The volume of sales in E-Commerce is increasing year by year, with fashion having the highest growth rate of about 37% in Asia. However a lack of trust is an issue that causes serious problems and prevents customers from making a purchase. Customers might even look through a page, find something they really like and add it to their Shopping Cart. But then at the checkout they have to ask themselves:
- Can I trust this Company with my Credit Card details?
- Are there additional costs that I do not know of yet?
- What happens if the shipment or anything else does not work properly? Can I count on supportive Customer service?
- Am I maybe even facing a fraud here?
The problem with fashion
While these questions already seem problematic enough for all parties involved, contributing to a shopping cart abandonment rate of 67.9% (2), there are actually more that are specific for the characteristics of fashion E-Commerce and cause this number to be even higher at 71.9% (2) in this sector:
- Is the quality I am getting apropriate for the price I am paying?
- Will other people think I look good in this?
- Do the clothes look good and fit the way I imagine them?
- How customer friendly is the return policy if that is not the case?
These questions originate from the diversity that distinguishes the fashion industry from for example technology, which is another big segment of the E-Commerce Market. If somebody decides to buy a certain camera the choice is limited, the price per piece is higher and he usually only needs one. Customers can therefore easily do research and look at the product in a physical store. If people want to buy clothes the variety is nearly unlimited, especially online and the amount of different articles they are buying is usually higher at a lower price per unit. Therefore even if customers were willing to do research for every piece they want to buy it would not be possible. They just have to trust the shop they are buying at.
Third Party Validation: An easy solution
As awfully complicated these problems might seem there is an easy solution to it: Just show your custormers that theycan trust you. According to a recent Nielsen study the trust in other customers’ opinions found online has never been stronger.
TrustedCompany.com offers a service that helps you reassure your customers not to worry when buying on your website. By displaying former customers’ reviews and the average score they gave you in a widget you can give them the confidence to finalize their order. TrustedCompany.com’s many satisfied customers include for example the eyewear shop lenskart.com with 20-25% higher conversion rates or the Indonesian men’s fashion online retailer maskool.in which had a dramatic increase in its conversion rate of 38.7%, after including the widget. In addition to enhancing customer trust, other peoples’ opinions also support the shop from the point of view of social validation. 90-95% of people seek for validation of others in a buying decision, especially seeing that other people buy at this page as well and approve of the style sold there will make customers more confident that other people will also approve of them wearing the displayed kind of clothes, thereby answering the second question. (3) This is especially important for shops selling a certain, extraordinary style of clothes. Especially in a Market with margins as low as in the fashion industry it is important to wisely invest the available marketing budget. The solution offered by TrustedCompany.com is an easy to implement, low-effort way to enhance customer trust and show that their opinion is valued. It also raises the overall Marketing ROI by leading customers who found the page through advertising to actually make a purchase.
Companies can now calculate their Sales Increase, Profit Increase and ROI at TrustedCompany.com/business. Sign up with TrustedCompany.com within the next 14 days and get a 10% discount.
