What makes customers nervous about shopping online?

Published on April 22, 2008 What makes customers nervous about shopping online?

When asked the question about what makes customers nervous about online shopping, most people would answer credit card fraud.  That’s true, fears about credit card fraud are a major barrier to people buying online. But there is something else that is a huge concern for online shoppers and often overlooked by sellers: the fear of what happens when something goes wrong.

If you buy a product in a shopping mall and it doesn’t work, you can get back in to your car, drive to their shop and return the product for a replacement or refund. If you bought it by mail order catalog you can look up their  phone number in the White Pages explain what the problem is and then arrange to return goods. But anonynimity in the online space often leaves shoppers thinking – if I pay for this will I actually get my goods? And if I get them will they be any good?

This is a real problem, so in countries like the United States, some companies are offering consumers paid-for services that check whether online sites have encryption a privacy policy and are tested by a daily scanning service like Hacker Safe.  Others are offering guarantees of the products bought online. Whether consumers or merchants will be willing to pay for this type of premium service is yet to be seen as one large guarantee company has already declared bankruptcy this year.

The message for online shops is a simple one.  Take advantage of every visitor you get to your site by giving them a great shopping experience and excellent customer service. Because other customers may never even get to your store as they are hiding out offline.

Some things you could do are:

• Advertise offline in flyers, magazines, posters etc. Mention how secure your online shop is and your returns policy in your advertising.
•  Make sure that customers can find and understand your returns policy. If you are an ozCart customer you may wish to purchase the Returns Form Add-on from our add-ons shop.
• Include a privacy policy on your site
• Include SSL on your website even if you are using a third party. Many people hear about the importance of SSL in checkout processes but do not really know what it means. Even if you don’t need it, you might need it to be seen as secure in your customer’s eyes
• Ensure your contact us page makes it easy to contact you offline. If you have one, include your 1800 number of 1300 number on the page (this is an 0800 number if you are a NZ customer)
• Deliver great customer service every time. Add live chat to your site so that customers can ask you questions about your products as they go through.
• Think about what other things you can do to reassure your customers that your shop is a worthy place to buy. Put yourself in their shoes and the ideas will hopefully flow.