373. How to Build Trust on Your eCommerce Website

Today we’re talking about trust and credibility because here’s the main downside of selling online vs. selling in a brick and mortar store… customers can’t touch it, they can’t try it on, they can’t smell it or taste it, and they can’t walk out the door with it either. 

They have to trust that you did a good enough job representing that product, that it will actually show up at their door, and that if something goes wrong, someone on the other end will be there to help them. 

And the sad truth is, no matter how honorable of a business owner you are, customers are still holding you accountable to all the poor experiences they had in the past. Plus, if you haven’t noticed, in the last few years online, especially now with the explosion of AI, there is a trust recession on the Internet. 

Your job is to create a website experience that shows the customer you are credible and trustworthy.

PREFER TO LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE? CLICK HERE

Trust is Cumulative

Before we get into the specifics of trust signals, I want you to remember that trust is cumulative. Nobody lands on your site looking for one big green checkmark that says this business is legit. Shoppers are scanning, taking in dozens of little cues, and without realizing it, they’re adding them up in the background. 

Hard to find policies, broken links, a stock photo of a smiling woman in a headset pretending to be your customer service team, overdesigned or hard to read websites… Each one of these is a tiny chip out of your credibility. 

On the flipside, every clear answer, every real photo of you or your team, every honest detail about production or shipping times even if they’re on the longer side and not ideal, every review, they are all positive signals.

You don’t have to be perfect. You just want more positive signals than negative ones. 

Contact Info and Customer Service Accessibility

Let’s start with the most basic one, because this is a super easy win you can make on your site. 

One of the beautiful things about running an online business is that you’re stuck inside the four walls of a brick and mortar store. You don’t have to be “on” for customers 8 hours a day and you get to build a business that fits your life.

But your customers still need to be able to reach you. And when they can easily find your content info, they feel taken care of before they’ve even asked a question. 

While you don’t have to give them a phone number they can call 24/7, you still want to make it easy for them to figure out how they can contact you. 

It all starts with your contact page, that you’ll want to link to from your footer. 

While most eCommerce platforms will have a standard contact page template that includes a form, I also recommend you show your actual customer service email here. Some people are weary about forms and just want to send an email directly so they have a record in their account. 

I would set up an auto-reply to confirm their message has been received, and let them know how long it typically takes for you to respond. You can also recommend other sources of support in the meantime, for example directing them to your FAQs, your store policies, etc.

Offering a chat feature also goes a long way. You can usually set these up with some common questions and answers, and depending on how sophisticated the platform is, it can even do order tracking for the customer. And of course, there are plenty of AI assistant platforms available that can serve your customers 24/7 even when you can’t be there. 

When it comes to self-serve chat, or AI assisted chat, it’s important you’re transparent about the fact that it’s not a human. And make sure you have a solid follow up system for those customers who don’t get their questions answered right away. 

Then of course we have social media DMs and even comments. A lot of customers might gravitate toward this, especially if they’re discovering you for the first time through ads. 

Overall, depending on your visibility volume, managing customer communications across so many channels can quickly get overwhelming. Once that happens, it’s worth it to invest in a customer service platform that can help you manage everything in one central place.

Until then though, if you want to streamline your communication as much as possible, you can always set up auto-replies in the places you don’t want to provide customer service – for example on social media. I have an auto-reply on my Instagram account that if someone messages me it tells them the account is not monitored and then gives them links to the most popular requests. 

Shipping, Returns, and Policy Visibility

Your store policies, like shipping and returns, is one of the most common questions shoppers will have before they buy. They’re also one of the biggest reasons why people abandon their cart. So, making that information easy to find is one of the highest-impact things you can do on your site.

For your shipping policy, you want to be really specific about your order processing time, the shipping carriers you work with, where you ship from, and what your cut off time for same day shipping is. With time zones. 

And even with all this information front and center, you still might have a customer that contacts you on Saturday wondering why the order they placed at 8pm the night before and selected overnight shipping wasn’t at their door. 

The same goes for your returns. Have a super clear policy, time window, who pays for return shipping, etc. 

All of your policies should live in your footer, and at checkout. I recommend you create separate pages for both your shipping policy and return policy vs. burying them in a generic FAQ page – though you can answer these questions there too. 

Bonus points: you can reference both of these policies on your product pages as well. You don’t have to put every last detail there, just add a summary and link them out to the main pages. The point is you want it to be really easy to find. 

And while we’re here, let’s talk about return policies. A lot of small businesses are hesitant to offer a generous return policy because they’re afraid of being buried in returns. But the truth is, a lot of people are too lazy to actually return things online, especially at lower price points. Think of your return policy as insurance for the customer. It makes them more comfortable buying because they know they’re not stuck with it. A generous return policy was literally the difference between success and failure for Zappos when they first started.

That said, you’re still a small business, and returns do eat into your margins, so you have to be smart about it. Instead of getting strict, do your part to make sure the customer fully understands what they’re buying before they hit checkout. We covered this in the product page episode, but this is where things like size charts, detailed descriptions, and clear photos do the heavy lifting. 

At a minimum, make sure your return window starts from the date the package is marked as delivered, not when it shipped. And if you create personalized or made-to-order goods, it’s totally fair to be more strict there since those items aren’t resellable.

This also comes back to your pricing. Your margins need enough room to absorb the occasional return without wrecking your bottom line. If a few returns would take you out, that’s a pricing issue more than a return policy issue. 

Reviews and Social Proof

Your reviews and social proof are also part of the trust and credibility story. We’ve already touched on this in both the product page and home page episodes of this series, so I won’t go into it here, but I wanted to make sure I mentioned it. 

Your About Page and Brand Story

Did you know that the about page is usually the second most visited page on a brand’s website after the home page?

Shoppers go there because they want to know who they’re buying from before they hand over their money. So your About page has a job to do, to sell. 

Yes, you want to share your story and give people a peek behind the brand. But the About page still isn’t really about you. The shopper is the hero of the story. You’re the guide. Your story matters because of what it means for them.

So when you’re writing your About page, every piece of your story should connect back to why it matters to the person reading it.

Instead of “I’ve always loved skincare and finally decided to start my own line,” try something like, “After years of struggling to find clean skincare that actually worked on my sensitive skin, I started formulating my own. Today, [Brand Name] helps women with reactive skin finally feel confident in their routine.”

Instead of “We’re a family-owned business with 30 years of experience,” try, “For 30 years, our family has helped people mark the moments that matter with jewelry pieces they’ll actually wear forever, not stash in a drawer..”

See the difference? Same story. Same facts. But now the shopper can see themselves in it.

So, what should be on your home page?

Here’s what actually belongs on an About page:

Why you started this business, and why that matters for the customer.

Who you serve and what you believe about them and their experience with your product category.

What makes your product or your approach genuinely different, and what that means for the person buying.

And a real photo of you or your team. If you’re a solo founder, lean in. People love buying from people. If you have a team, show the humans behind the brand. A behind-the-scenes shot, a photo of you packing orders, your dog that supervises the warehouse. Let people in.

Your About page is where you get to be a person, not a brand. Just make sure every part of it loops back to your shopper and what you can do for them.

The Quick Hit List of Credibility Markers

Before we wrap up, here are a few of the little things that make a bigger impact than you think. 

Broken links. Whether it’s a page that no longer exists linked in your footer, or a social media icon that links to a non-existent profile, while they seem minor, it screams neglect. 

Janky product packaging. While I’m all for saving money on things that end up in the garbage, homemade packaging, especially for any product that goes in or on someone’s body is a red flag to a customer. 

Unprofessional email addresses. If you don’t have an email at your domain, now is the time to get one. If you’re emailing people from @gmail.com, it’s giving side hustle and not in a cute way. 

Too many pop-ups. This is one that happens a lot because you as a returning visitor have been cookied and don’t see all the pop-ups that a new customer sees. Make sure you browse your website in incognito mode to get the first-time visitor experience. 

Your Next Steps

It’s time to do another audit of your site. Take a few minutes to peruse through your site, check links, look at what opportunities you have to boost your credibility. 

If you’re too close to it, which you probably are, we all are… enlist a friend who doesn’t know as much about your products or industry and ask them what they think. Make sure you give them permission to be honest. 

Make a quick hit list of what needs to be updated and knock it out. Don’t overthink these things too much, just make sure all the necessary information is accessible.