For any company that sells products and services online, whether they are physical or digital ones, there are only two main ways to increase transactions and sales. The first one is to increase your traffic, getting more potential customers into your sales funnel. The second one is to increase the conversion rate on your checkout page or cart, which means getting more revenue and more customers from your existing traffic.
There are many different ways to increase your conversion rate, including pricing tests, adding coupon codes, changing the wording or even the color of your CTA buttons, improving your authorization rate, etc. Softline Ecommerce can help you with all of that, but we will focus today on another very important element of ecommerce conversion: Trust.
To get your visitors to move forward through your sales funnel, trust is key. Distrust of unknown companies is very popular and distrust of the internet in general is still important (and sometimes justified). It is therefore very important to constantly reassure your internet users in order to increase your conversion rate.
In order to do so, you should use trust marks (also called trust icons or trust badges) in all phases of your ecommerce sales funnel. Those trust marks can come in many forms:
- Payment security,
- Customer reviews,
- Labels,
- Company rewards,
- Clarity of your conditions of sale, return or delivery,
- 30-day money-back guarantee,
- Easily identifiable contact details,
- Payment methods.
Before disregarding those elements, you should realize the massive impact they have on conversion. For example, Sirkin Research found that 87% of consumers find ads more trustworthy when the Trustpilot trust mark is present compared to having an advertisement with no trust mark at all. And, as you will be integrating those trust elements in your conversion funnel, you will realize here again that customers are different around the world, and that you will have to localize some of those trust marks.
While Trustpilot is fairly known around the world, you might realize after running an AB test that you should add Avis Vérifiés alongside Trustpilot in France, EHI-Siegel in Germany, or more generally the Trusted shops icon in Europe. In order to reassure your internet users that your website is safe to use and that payments are secured, you might want to use the VeriSign Trust Seal as it is widely used globally. However, you could realize that other trust marks work better locally.
As well, you might want to highlight the available payment methods in your checkout process as Visa, Mastercard and Paypal are not the most common payment methods everywhere. Many emerging markets still have a low credit card penetration rate and are home to many unbanked users who do not have access to banking services. Payment methods trust marks can include Oxxo or Banamex in Mexico, PagoFacil or RapiPago in Argentina or Boleto in Brazil. Even some developed nations like Germany have uncommon online payment habits, with invoice still accounting for a third of all ecommerce transactions. In order for them to have any significance, the badges you use will need to be recognized by your local consumers.
As an example, several AB tests conducted in Latin America with one of Softline’s key ecommerce clients have led to switching the traffic to the most popular local payment methods. The results of those AB tests helped understand the consumer payment behavior patterns in the region, and showcased a 30% uplift in conversion rate (Channel Volume). These results have shown that using local payment methods increases users’ trust and convenience, which leads users to complete the order in the checkout.
If you want to conquer new markets successfully and find out what we can do together, please contact us on our website, via LinkedIn or email (ecommerce@softline.com).