How do we show we have a trustworthy e-commerce website?

[LinkBright Media]

I was just reading a post here from someone else's disgruntled customer and have to admit that I've been duped once before when making an online purchase. It's made me very cautious about placing orders online and I'm sure there are many more who are reluctant to part with their credit card details.

I've been trading online for 18 months and proud to say we offer outstanding service, money back guarantees etc etc. How can I best prove this to my potential customers?

I found this but is it well known enough to make a difference: www.validatedsite.com. Or are there other schemes you can join to prove you provide good and trustworthy service?

 

[victimjinnysmall]

I was just reading a post here from someone else's disgruntled customer and have to admit that I've been duped once before when making an online purchase. It's made me very cautious about placing orders online and I'm sure there are many more who are reluctant to part with their credit card details.

I've been trading online for 18 months and proud to say we offer outstanding service, money back guarantees etc etc. How can I best prove this to my potential customers?

I found this but is it well known enough to make a difference: Or are there other schemes you can join to prove you provide good and trustworthy service?

Hi ninjaneen,

thank you for taking the time to reply to my post. I will answer you post as best as I can...

First of all, I am not badmouthing a business... this is based from personal experience. I for one believe that satisfied customers does not have any reason to raise negative feedback on sellers... I am also a frequent buyer in ebay and I have never encountered this preposterous kind of treatment from the seller... Personal experience no matter how bad should not be called bad mouthing... But I do respect that that is your opinion.

Second, thank you very much for the link. I will visit it after my post. I am not afraid to escalate this to higher institution since I really received a different item from the ones that I ordered.

Thirdly, you are correct, about me not being able to coordinate first with the seller... you see the item arrived today (May 19, 2011 12nn Asia time) but I have a good reason why I resorted to posting my experience in this forum. (kindly see my previous reply)

Just to clarify again, this website did not reply to my VERY SIMPLE request of having the fedex tracking number be forwarded to me for tracking purposes.... I am not very confident that they would reply since I tried to contact them a number of time already (about the fedex tracking number).

LASTLY, In the case being, they should have been the ONE to CONTACT ME FIRST, before shipping the item so as to confirm if I still want to push thru with the transaction, (SINCE = MY ORDERED ITEMS was not available) The error committed was their fault.

I ask you, if you ordered something and they know before shipping that the item was NOT WHAT you ORDERED? Shouldnt they have the DECENCY to contact the buyers first? So as to get their side and be GIVEN A CHOICE TO :

a. cancel the shipment
b. proceed with the shipment (with only the 4 items)
c. proceed with the shipment (with the 4 + 5 NEW ITEMS - approved by the buyer of course)

You see, I am not an unreasonable buyer, what PISSES me off is that I wasnt give a choice in this transaction. I had good faith in them but see where it led me?

One fact that we cannot dismiss is that I havent tried the product that they have subsituted for the 5 neutrogena facial wash that I ordered. Would they be liable if the product doesn't suit me? (ie give allergic reaction to my skin)


But I really appreciate your time, comments and question. I had only time to write a few sentences in my first post so maybe that is why I wasn't able to establish the facts. Thank you ninjaneen.

 

[victimjinnysmall]

I was just reading a post here from someone else's disgruntled customer and have to admit that I've been duped once before when making an online purchase. It's made me very cautious about placing orders online and I'm sure there are many more who are reluctant to part with their credit card details.

I've been trading online for 18 months and proud to say we offer outstanding service, money back guarantees etc etc. How can I best prove this to my potential customers?

I found this but is it well known enough to make a difference: Or are there other schemes you can join to prove you provide good and trustworthy service?

I dont mean to be redundant, but since my post was deleted can you again provide the website where I can raise my complain? Thanks in advance.

 

[LinkBright Media]

Hi, yes I totally agree with you. I was only cautious because you'd named the website in question and that's probably why your post has been removed by the forum administrators. It's not good practice and I'm sure not legally allowed either. Good luck with your complaint to Office of Fair Trading, I'm sure they will take it very seriously.

 

[LinkBright Media]

I dont mean to be redundant, but since my post was deleted can you again provide the website where I can raise my complain? Thanks in advance.

Office of Fair Trading: www.oft.gov.uk (enforces consumer protection law)

 

[edmondscommerce]

Just set up a client with Trust Pilot which seems quite good..

ties into ebay , amazon etc feedback and also lets you get your own site feedback

 

[KateCB]

Given the removal and repeat of the original post, this became confusing....to me anyway! The point about how to make sure your customer knows you are trustworthy...

1.PCI DSS compliance, with the relevant seal/link shown on your website
2.Secure processing of transactions through a PSP such as SagePay/Barclays etc
3.DPA Registration - number shown so that customers can check if they want to
4.Privacy and security policy in place and available for customer to read - a short vesion and the longer, legal version
5.Continue to provide goods as described/requested in a timely manner, and word of mouth with do the rest.

 

[HTMLHugo]

sorry to hijack the thread a little bit but does a regular retail website need to register with the DPA?

in all honesty I couldnt make head nor tail of there site.

i use the data just for delivery details and keeping track of who has ordered etc.

obviously this information is stored for future purchases also.

 

[KateCB]

If you are storing 'personally identifying information' which is a customer name, address and contact details for future purchases, also perhaps staff details etc, then you should be DPA registered......costs £35 a year.....

 

[DarrenTSO]

Having a physical address listed on the website, with a number that people can call to contact you is one that a lot of sites miss, and I'd imagine lose a lot of business because of. If you want to push across the personal touch, put picture of you/your staff on the 'About Us' page. If you have an office, put a real picture of that as well. A professional website design is also key.

Another thing that a lot of people forget is to *not* hide their WHOIS details. Hiding your WHOIS details is fine if you are running a personal website or your personal email, but a business should be as easily contactable as possible.

Things like making clear your return policies, or having a money back guarantee (that you will happily honour) also go some-way to helping potential customers trust you - these are especially important during the checkout stages, as people get cold feet before they hit the "Confirm Order" button, so adding a "Money Back Guarantee" rosette during these stages can really help reduce abandoned carts.

Finally, get some testimonials as possible - perhaps even offer discount codes, or some kind of freebie for customers that offer feedback - don't put pressure on them to leave good feedback, but obviously only publish the good ones. (Use the bad/indifferent ones to learn what you could improve on, and/or contact the customer to get some more clarification on what could be improved in future).

Just a few pointers that I'm sure will help with your visitor to customer conversion rate.

The key thing to improving conversion is good use of metrics - get Google Analytics on your site, and combine this with the ecommerce and set up some funnels/goals. You'll be able to see where most peopel are abandoning the sales process - are they hitting the front page and disappearing? Are they getting to the final checkout page and then leaving? It may be that people are spooked by your shipping prices if the latter is the case, for instance. But it's all about analysing these metrics (and ideally split testing).

 

[OliviaSSLGuru]

if you want to show online spectators that your website is complete trustworthy and authorized then you need VeriSign Secure Site Pro EV SSL Certificate which can validate your website and your organize.

VeriSign Secure Site Pro EV SSL Certificate not increase your website trust but it also increase your website customer confidence and sales too.

Get Cheap VeriSign Secure Site Pro EV from RapidSSLonline.com

 

[Bronze]

Having a physical address listed on the website.

I'm pretty sure this is a legal requirement for any business trading online although I see many traders who don't publish this.

I think a lot don't because they work from home which can look unprofessional.

 

[SillyJokes]

One thing that I don't think makes a blind bit of difference is hackersafe. If you have to ask what it is then it probably isn't needed and you should have to spend loads of dosh on it.

 

[WHUK]

Hi ninjaneen

In order to make your customers aware that your website is safe; the best option is to get a dedicated SSL for your website. Your identity is independently verified, and your domain name is what appears on the certificate. A dedicated SSL certificate gives you the complete control over protection, and your SSL stays with you even if you change the web hosting company. Therefore at all times your website is safe and secure. When an SSL is added to the url of the website, it is shown as – https:// followed by your website address. When the customers check the ssl certificate, the credibility of your website is increased.

 

[Bronze]

if you want to show online spectators that your website is complete trustworthy and authorized then you need VeriSign Secure Site Pro EV SSL Certificate which can validate your website and your organize.

VeriSign Secure Site Pro EV SSL Certificate not increase your website trust but it also increase your website customer confidence and sales too.

Get Cheap VeriSign Secure Site Pro EV from RapidSSLonline.com

To be honest I disagree. Not once have I based wether or not I'm going to purchase from a store based on an ssl.

I do agree an ssl is needed for the padlock when entering sensitive details but I don't take any notice of the ssl logo when browsing a site.

If you're selling expensive items £1000+ then I could understand.

 

[nancy_r]

To be safe and to provide your customer a confidence that your site is trustworthy. you can check these things

1. Check if your site has SSL that do organization validation to show you really do exists on the given address
2. If possible provide phone / chat support to your clients to check their order status or to ask question before purchase
3. Provide them trustworthy reviews, put them on your site so customers can get a peace in mind that others have already purchased from you, he's not the first.

 

[Bronze]

Having a telephone number which is big and easily visible also assures the buyer you're actually in existence.

At least they know they can physically speak to someone during office hours.

Personally I don't like it when the only contact information is a standard e-mail message form and you've got no indication when you'll get a reply if any.

 

[movietub]

Big telephone number, address at the bottom of each page and make the website look professional.

If the website is sleek, well designed and the copy is good then people are more reassured than by anything else.

Plastering safe & secure etc logos all over could easily be replicated by a scammer.

 

[Paul123456]

The best way is, to always be sincere to your customers. I have got my own business and i have been trading for 2 years and never had a problem with any of my customer.
Trust between sellers and buyers is a very key point.

 

[LinkBright Media]

Things like making clear your return policies, or having a money back guarantee (that you will happily honour) also go some-way to helping potential customers trust you - these are especially important during the checkout stages, as people get cold feet before they hit the "Confirm Order" button, so adding a "Money Back Guarantee" rosette during these stages can really help reduce abandoned carts.

This is a fab suggestion thanks, I'll be adding this to the checkout pages today. I've got all the other things you mentioned in place already, except for the testimonials. I'm hesitant to do this although we do have some outstanding feedback to include. Personally I never trust testimonials - am I just being sceptical? Do most customers believe them?

I agree having a telephone number is a real winner. I'm waiting to get a virtual terminal before we start using a call answering service, at which point we can display a phone number. I've simply not had the resources to offer telephone cover before now, but this is soon to change.

Thanks for the SSL suggestions everyone but it wasn't website safety I was referring to. I want to show our customers that we're a trustworthy company which is something entirely different. Sorry I didn't phrase the question quite right did I!

 

[JamieM]

I think security logos and all that stuff are a waste of time.

A good way of establishing trust is by having something like a Facebook page as people can then see you engaging with your customers.