Despite having a rocky start, the e-commerce industry is growing by leaps and bounds. The e-commerce industry is expected to continue to grow exponentially at a steady rate, and sales are expected to reach $4.9 trillion by 2021.
As the e-commerce industry marches ahead at a scorching pace, the industry quickly becomes the target of fraudsters. There have been reports of fraudulent activities by the sellers as well as the buyers. There have been increased occasions where the sellers have transported counterfeit items or items that were different from the ones listed in the e-commerce site.
As the number of fraudulent activities by the sellers increase, the e-commerce industry loses its credibility as a safe location to carry out business. As a result, more and more customers turn their backs and go back to shopping offline at the shopping malls and retail outlets.
We will discuss this issue and list out ways to rebuild the trust of the customers in the e-commerce industry.
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Table of Contents
Branding your website helps
We have always seen celebrities to be the face for renowned brands. It is because viewers can attract to their favorite stars and follow them easily of whatever brands they promote. It holds for the e-commerce industry also. The websites of any entity selling online have also undergone a welcome change. While it is just fine to talk about your offers on the homepage, you should showcase your customer-centricity. The transformation should not be limited to the homepage only but cover the product pages also.
Are your customers adjustable?
Make sure it is easy for your customers to find the products of their choice. Your customers must not have to go through a long-drawn registration process. Make sure the entire buyer journey is comfortable for the customer. Ensure that the search facility has lots of filters to ensure the customer can reach the product pages quickly.
Once in the product page, the description of the features and sizes, etc. should be distinctly mentioned without any uncertainty. The additional of selected products to the cart and the payment process should be without any glitches. Also, you need to ensure the customers pay in the local currency and not global currencies.
You need to request your customers to leave behind their comments in the testimonial section. It acts as proof about the product being a genuine one and being bought by many.
Ensure the best quality products are listed
There have been lots of incidents where there were issues with the quality of the product. Sometimes, even the product is different from what was depicted on the website. In the digital age, it is easy to spread adverse reviews. It works for you to ensure only the best quality products are enlisted on your website. You can have a policy of hefty fines and penalties in case there is an issue with the product. You need to ensure that only legitimate manufacturers and dealers are on the platform.
You must show off your advantages
You wish to ensure the maximum number of customers visit your site to browse your product catalog. So, why not flaunt the offers and benefits that you provide. If you are offering a free shipping irrespective of the cart value, please go ahead and inform our customers. It is you who is the best to decide where to advertise this on your website.
You can also showcase this in the meta description when you show up on the SERP results. In case you provide this service above a threshold, please mention that also to prevent any heartburn later.
Also, you may have some alliances with financial organizations for cashback or easy monthly installments. Please mention these benefits also on your website.
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Help your customers to choose the products
Creating relevant content to make your customers goes a long way in ensuring their trust. You should allow only high definition pictures and videos to be uploaded onto the product listing pages. Create blogs about the latest fashion trends. It helps if you have created easy to use documents and tutorials for critical items like consumer durables and mobile phones. Install language translator plug-ins to allow your customers to browse through the documents in a language of their choice.
Request your developers to be forward-thinking and use AI to have a virtual mirror to allow customers to try the products and see for themselves how they look.
Have an active customer support team
To start with, provide the contact credentials, like customer care number, email, live chat, etc. of your customer support team. It is also beneficial to have a detailed escalation procedure on a separate webpage. Ensure that the return of goods have a proper workflow, and the customers are not unnecessary harassed.
Have a secure website
Your customers use their credit card information to buy from your website. They always make sure that your website is secure. The procedure is known to everyone. All you need to do is to purchase a cheap SSL certificate. It will ensure that your site is using the HTTPS protocol. There are several SSL providers from whom you can buy cheap SSL certificate. Even for the highest validation, you should ideally go for the extended validation certificate that will provide you with the best in class security through the most robust verification processes.
Conclusion
Given the abilities of social media, any negative feedback has the potential of posing a catastrophic blow to your website. You need to provide your customers with a satisfying journey across the entire buying cycle. It will go a long way in ensuring loyal customers and better feedback for your website. Ensuring customer trust is not a one-time but an ongoing process. Moreover, in the e-commerce industry, customer servicing is not the responsibility of only one department. The entire organization needs to be customer centric.
Through this article, we hope that our readers will be able to improve customer-centricity and enhance their chances of conversions.
