The Importance of Trust and Safety in Ecommerce Sales

[mandy]

E-commerce businesses have long struggled with finding the best strategies for optimizing the performance of their sites in terms of minimizing shopping cart abandonment and maximizing overall site conversions. These are laudable goals, but for many sites, focusing only on these issues and not looking at the bigger picture means leaving money on the table...

...trust and safety are major factors in the behavior of these more hesitant shoppers. So price is not the only issue at hand.

This suggests online retailers should look at strategies for projecting trustworthiness. For example, what does your About Us page have on it? Will it frighten users away or convince them that you are the real deal? Nigel also suggests that offering users an option to provide you with an email address is a smart idea. Users who are not ready to buy may be willing to hear what you have to say, and may well provide you with the opportunity to get back to them. Following up with an email containing a special offer is an excellent way to increase that latent conversion rate...

full article: http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3626363