Answer
Dec 27, 2020 - 12:41 PM
Great question. To answer your question let's step back and ask a more basic question:
Why do people feel comfortable buying on Ebay?
I believe people trust Ebay because they have been around a really long time, and as you note, Ebay guarantees buyer protection. If a seller screws you, you have recourse. There are also product reviews and seller ratings that are not easily gamed. Next, ask the question:
What aspects of the Ebay experience can you replicate on your Shopify site?
You obviously cannot build a 25 year reputation overnight (Ebay launched in 1995) but there are still a lot of tactics you can employ right now that will help. There is an African proverb that says, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now! Below is a list of things you can do:
1. Borrow Ebay's reputation: If you had success on Ebay, take a screen-shot of your seller rating and reviews, post it on your site, and say something like: We have a stellar reputation on Ebay but their fees are too high. Please help support our business by buying directly on our site.
2. Use video testimonials and especially ones that are not highly scripted. Just happy customers talking about their experience.
3. Use 'negative testimonials' i.e. people saying that although the product was not right for them, you issued a refund quickly and overall the buying experience was great. This will make first time visitors to the site feel comfortable buying, secure in the knowledge that if they don't like the product, they too will get a refund. If all you have are glowing testimonials saying the exact same thing, you will build less trust.
4. Invest in design and CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization). High quality design makes a huge difference. We are CRO experts but when it came to selling out $1 cheat sheet we forgot this lesson and thought we could just hack something quickly with a drag and drop page builder. How wrong we were! Here is the original page that got exactly one sale despite thousands of targeted page views. The sale was from one of my relatives! And here is the optimized version that so far has ~40 sales for roughly the same amount of traffic.
5. Use Trust and Security Seals: According to this study by CXL, the Google Trusted Store and Norton security seals are the most effective (based on recognition) :
Building trust is an important factor in high conversion rates. It is one of the key factors in the conversion rate heuristic (created by a research organization known as MECLABS) we use in our client work. I explain it below:
The MECLABS Conversion Rate Heuristic
The Conversion Index is a simple “heuristic” (rule of thumb) developed by a research organization known as MECLABS. It is used to evaluate websites, landing pages and mobile apps. The idea is that, rather than learn from your audience directly, instead use the distilled wisdom from thousands of landing pages and tests.
The wisdom is expressed as follows
C = 4m + 3v + 2(i - f) - 2a
It may look complicated, but it is simple. All it says is: the probability of a Conversion (C) is dependent on five factors.
m: motivation level of a prospect
v: strength of the value proposition
i: incentive e.g. buy one get the second for 50% off just for today
f: friction elements present on the page
a: anxiety present on the page (this is all about trust, in your question. Anxiety is lack of trust, after all)
The number beside each factor is its relative importance and a “+” sign means the factor helps conversion while a “-” sign means it hurts conversion.
To learn more about conversion rate optimization download our cheat sheet below. It includes 6 detailed case studies and the process we have used to get meaningful conversion lifts for a wide range of ecommerce businesses:
Add New Comment