When you’re trying to sell products through an eCommerce store, one of the biggest challenges you face is trying to overcome the various ‘barriers to sale’. Barriers to sale are anything that discourage people from buying your products, even though they actually want them and feel that they’re worth the money.
One of the biggest barriers to sale here is the fact that people don’t like inputting their details because it’s a hassle. You might want to buy something but not have the time or patience to fill out a form – and for that reason you don’t convert. One way to overcome this is to use a payment method that doesn’t require any details – such as PayPal.
The other big barrier though is trust. When people buy from you, they are giving you their details and their address and they are trusting that the product you’re selling meets the description. They are trusting that you won’t run off with their details and they’re trusting that your site is safe and secure.
That’s a big ask if you’ve never encountered the customer before and it can be too much of an ask in many cases. So how do you overcome this issue and get people to trust you enough to bite the bullet?
Here are some of the best strategies…
Make Your Site Look Professional
One of the most straightforward and effective ways to increase trust among your visitors, is to make sure that your site looks professional and modern. If you’ve ever been to a website that looks like it was made in the Geocities era, then no doubt you will know how off-putting this can be and it makes it very hard to trust the security of the site or even that the business is still operational!
Get a Security Badge
There are a number of companies that offer to perform security checks on websites and to provide a ‘badge’ or ‘seal’ that you can display if you pass. This is then used to communicate to your visitors that your site is safe to shop on.
Don’t spend a lot of money on this though: these seals vary in quality and a lot of customers won’t put much stock in them (what’s to prevent you creating your own seal?). But if you can find a cheap and well-recognized one, then it doesn’t hurt.
Use a Recognized Payment Processor
People will feel much more comfortable buying through PayPal than they will filling out a form to give you their details.
Have Cheap Items for Sale
If you’re trying to sell a big ticket item, then you’re creating a lot more risk for them. They’ll worry that you might never keep up your side of the bargain and they’ll lose all their money.
A way around this is to sell them a cheaper item first. This way they can check that you’re true to your word in a much safer capacity and then only decide to spend more once you’ve proven yourself.
