As online shopping continues to rise in popularity, the need for trust between e-commerce businesses and customers has become more apparent. People want to buy their goods online from trustworthy sellers—and rightfully so. Not surprisingly, scams and deceptive advertising are common in online shopping. As an online business owner, you have to earn your customers’ trust.
For digital marketing in e-commerce, your objectives are similar to traditional marketing: establish credibility, form relationships, and strengthen your reputation from the ground up.
However, to build trust in the e-commerce industry, you may have to enhance your digital marketing efforts and utilise various strategies for better results. Your online store is a representation of your brand as a whole, so you need to promote your business by conducting different e-commerce marketing strategies across different channels.
How to establish customer trust in your e-commerce website? Below are some ways that can help you earn the trust of your customers.
7 Ways To Earn Your Customer Trust
1. Use The Right E-commerce Platform
The first step to building trust is using the right e-commerce platform for your online store. After all, doing so allows you to optimise your e-commerce website and improve its performance so your customers can enjoy a user-friendly experience. In addition, most e-commerce platforms let you use several features that will benefit both you and your customers.
KNOW MORE: Which E-Commerce Platforms To Choose?
When looking for an e-commerce platform, make sure it offers a wide range of features like autocomplete options, related items, add items to wishlist, live chat support, and many more that you can take advantage of for your online store. Choosing the right one guarantees you will develop a high-quality e-commerce website that will provide your customers with excellent loading times, accessible navigation, and visually pleasing aesthetics. Incorporate e-commerce SEO services into your e-commerce website to increase your search engine rankings, and your online reputation will improve even further.
2. Promote Your Business On Social Media
If a potential customer visits your online store for the first time, expect them to for your business account on social media platforms on top of researching for customer reviews and testimonials.
Since most people have social media accounts, perhaps you should do the same for your online business. While it is not mandatory, creating a social media campaign can give you an edge over your competitors. With a social media page, you can promote your business on networking sites like Facebook ,Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. You can even interact, connect, and communicate with hundreds or thousands of potential customers, allowing you to form new relationships as you establish your credibility and earn their trust.
View this post on Instagram
This Nike’s post on Instagram is promoting their Air shoes while giving some facts about it
3. Respond To Your Customers Promptly
When it comes to online shopping, nothing is more satisfying than sending an enquiry to the seller and getting a reply as soon as possible. A quick response from the seller means they are more than glad to help you out for whatever reason. From the seller’s perspective, replying to your customers implies your willingness to address their concerns and find ways to resolve them.
The faster you respond, the better the result. Engaging with your customers both in private and public chats can make them feel that you value their troubles and situations.
The image below is an example of how you can promptly respond to your customer’s concerns in public.
Mcdonald’s in Singapore Quickly Responded To A Customer’s Inquiry.
4. Display Both Positive And Negative Reviews
Pleasing everyone is impossible because our views and beliefs are different from one another. Even if your products present top-tier qualities and features, someone out there will not be satisfied with what you have to offer. In that case, showcase your transparency and honesty by displaying both positive and negative customer reviews.
READ MORE: Customer Reviews: How To Use Them In Your Marketing Campaigns
Avoid filtering your product pages and leaving the negative stuff out of the reviews. Doing so will only make your customers think you are not worthy of their trust since you manipulate your reputation in your e-commerce website so they can trust you.
Sephora Singapore displays both positive and negative reviews they received from customers who purchase their products like this Matte Perfection Powder Foundation.
So show both the good and bad sides of your merchandise to let customers know that they can trust you. If you have received too many negative reviews lately, you need to do something about it. Consider your customers’ feedback on the products or services and find ways to change or improve them if necessary.
5. Show Off What You Sell
Everyone loves pictures since it keeps something alive even if they were taken for a long time. That is one of the reasons why most people are more likely to make purchases when an e-commerce website includes appealing pictures on each product page.
Good-looking photographs help generate trust and credibility no matter what you are selling. Showing different angles of a product helps customers make an informed purchase decision. It is not surprising since online buyers cannot try the item themselves, and displaying how good it is on an actual person helps them determine whether or not it also looks great on them.
UNIQLO Singapore showcases their items on models, and all of the photographs have the same lighting, model positioning, and general aesthetic.
When showing off products on your e-commerce website, you do not need to hire a professional photographer. What you only need to make sure all the photos you have captured all look vividly clear and crisp. A simple as that can help you draw the attention of buyers.
6. Be Empathetic
You have to empathise with your customers whenever they express their concerns. Being professional is part of the job as an e-commerce business owner, and so is understanding your customers’ complaints.
Listening to your customers not only allows you to earn their trust and respect, but it can also help you learn more about your products or services and anything related to your e-commerce business.
Your customers could provide you with information about your products or e-commerce website that could help you come up with efficient solutions to improve your quality of service.
ALSO READ: Empathetic Marketing: How To Connect With Your Customers?
7. Avoid Displaying Too Many Ads On Your E-Commerce Website
Even though it is exciting to know that people come and visit your e-commerce website, over promoting your products or services can annoy them. Instead of encouraging them to make a purchase, you are only driving them away by displaying too many ads.
Customers love simple things. They will get turned off if you promote what you sell too much. So keep everything simple and do not overwhelm them to make a decision. Your customers will eventually reach the conversion stage of the customer purchase journey as long as you know how to guide them.
READ MORE: What Is The Consumer Purchase Journey?
What’s Next?
These are just some of the ways that can help you build customer trust! Try to take it a step further by working with an e-commerce SEO agency in Singapore that can provide you with efficient e-commerce SEO services.
OOm is also a pre-approved Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG) vendor for e-commerce PSG solutions. Starting on April 1, 2023, SMEs can receive up to 50% support for e-commerce solutions when engaging with a pre-approved PSG vendor. Find out more about e-commerce PSG here.
If you need our help, feel free to reach out to OOm. Our e-commerce marketing will get in touch with you as soon as you contact OOm at +65 6391 0930 or leave a message on our website.
