Trust Elements on Shopify

Why Customers Buy

Trust Elements on Shopify: Why Customers Buy

Trust Elements on Shopify: Why Customers Buy 1024 576 NOYADESIGNS

Have you heard of the saying “Know, Like, Trust”? People have to know, like, and trust you before they buy from you. This sounds very nice in theory, but what does it even mean? Let’s break it down: people have to know you before they can buy from you. This is a given. You can’t buy from a company you don’t know exists. Getting people to like you isn’t that difficult either. Just be likeable. Getting a customers trust is a much different story. There are companies you don’t hesitate to buy from because you know they’ll deliver. The goal is to get your customers to feel that same level of confidence when they visit your site. How do you get someone to trust you? Trust elements.

There are certain things you can do on your Shopify site to make people trust you. I like to call these things trust elements. Trust elements are apps, plugins, or tweaks you can add to you site that will make people trust you. If the trust you, they’ll buy from you.

Social Proof: Instagram Feed

Do you have an Instagram feed on your website? It’s not enough to just link to your Instagram on your site. People want to know what you’re about. What’s your “aesthetic”? What is your companies vibe? Your “aesthetic” is a fancy way of saying what is your company about? What do you stand for? A great way to get an idea of what a company is about is to check their Instagram profile. I like to call Instagram a companies real life portfolio. When you have an active and beautiful Instagram feed people are reminded that you’re a real brand. When they see your feed they know that your store isn’t a fly by night dropshipping store. Let’s be honest, people have been burned by stores that have been built to make a quick buck. This is the real deal, and we can see that because you have an Instagram feed. It’s such a simple tweak you can make on your site but you’ll be surprised how much this can change things for you.

Shopify Trust Elements

Push your Press

Just like adding your Instagram feed increases your customers trust in you, press is even better. When we see world recognized brands like ELLE, CNN, ESSENCE, or Buzzfeed, it strikes a cord in us. Your store might not be the biggest, but if large publications are talking about you, make sure you shout it from the rooftops. When people see brands they recognize being aligned with you then they assume you may be worth taking a risk on. If you have any press – it doesn’t have to be large – be sure to show it off! You want people to know you’re a legitimate operation. 

Have a Physical Address

There is some distrust surrounding eCommerce. There are some people who still get nervous about putting their payment information into an online platform. eCommerce is still a fairly new concept (it’s only been around for 25 years!) so this is normal. When people buy from stores in the mall and they get a defective product, they can just go back to the mall and return it. The situation is very different in eCommerce because you have to ship back the product if you don’t like it. In most cases unless you offer free returns customers will actually have to pay to return or exchange a product. This is a hassle. If you have a physical address on your site clients gets a sense of security that if anything goes wrong they can just ship it back to you.

In the beginning stages most store owners don’t have a physical address for their store. A great way to get around this is to use a virtual mailbox. Virtual mailboxes give you a physical addresses and suite numbers that you can use to have mail delivered to. If you do get mail there they take care of the forwarding to your home address. This is a much more affordable option than a P.O box.

Conduct an Audit

Have a look at your Shopify store. Ask yourself, are there enough trust elements? Am I doing everything in my power to make my site instill confidence in my customers?  If you work on building trust with your customers you’ll be surprised how they show out for you. Having trust elements on your site is great however make sure that your customer service is up to par as well. Remember that your goal isn’t to just get one customer and move on. The goal is to have multiple repeat customers, so ensure that you actually conduct business in a trust worthy way. I trust that you’ll take this advice and get to work on tweaking your store.

Best of luck,

Sarah-Jane out!