Trustmarks – What’s in it for me if I display them on my e-store?

“If I type in my credit card number to buy this widget, how many people will have access to it? Or what if my widget never arrives?”

“How do I know this company is safe and will honor their ‘satisfaction guaranteed’ if I don’t like the color?”

These are probably questions most of you have asked when doing your own, personal shopping online. And they are the same questions many of your site visitors ask before ordering from your e-store, as well they should.

Just a couple of years ago, a ring of hackers compromised over 45 million credit cards from major online retailers, such as TJ Maxx and Marshall’s.  45 million!  While most hacking cases aren’t on such a large scale, you have to ask yourself – Can I afford not to invest in the best security and certification measures with a reliable company and display their trustmark to ensure visitors trust my e-store?

The answer is No as evidenced by a recent poll showing that 63% won’t purchase from a site that does not display a trustmark from a highly regarded security company. This cost retailers $21 billion in online sales. Clearly, if you can make visitors feel safe ordering from you, the ROI for your ecommerce site will improve dramatically.

For this and so many other reasons, we strongly encourage all of our clients to contract with a security company they know to be dependable and whose trustmark they can proudly display on their e-store.  It reduces shopping cart abandonment and converts browsers to buyers.

There are many respectable companies, Verisign and Comodo for example, who provide industry standard SSL certificates. However, the one Web Loft Designs uses and recommends to our clients most often is McAfee. They also perform many different tests on each website, including product legitimacy. But no matter which online security company you choose, it is urgent that you not only have one you trust, but also that it is one whose trustmark your e-store visitors will recognize and will help convince them to click on the final “Submit Order.”

1 Comment

1. You’ve hit the nail on the head — Trust Marks are indeed essential, and thanks for mentioning VeriSign. We’ve got a lot of 3rd party research showing the same thing — that consumers need an indicator of trust. And if you pass a background check, VeriSign will loan you some in the form of a trust mark. Just a note that if anyone has any questions about VeriSign’s products I’d be happy to field them; and bear in mind that a site doesn’t need to be encrypted to use trust marks – the VeriSign Trust Seal provides authentication and malware scanning to sites that have 3rd party shopping carts and don’t need ssl. Thanks for the post!

   Joseph A'Deo
   June 11, 2010 at 11:58 pm