PeopleMetrics has published four suggestions on improving your website’s conversions/retention. I think this advice is most appropriate for situations where you are hoping for direct sales/orders from your website; more likely for retail and special service businesses than general contractors or professional services. Nevertheless, it makes sense to consider these ideas and why they enhance trust and responsiveness for retail businesses, but how most of them would be useless (even harmful) if you wish to convey a more professional and business orientation to your current and potential clients.
Add Security Badges and Certifications to Your Website
Symbols of trust like VeriSign, McAfee ?Secure,? PayPal ?Verified,? and Better Business Bureau ?Accredited Business? badges can be indispensable for showing data security legitimacy. According to a recent article by?MonetizePros, these badges can also impact the average order value, indicating that customers feel better about placing larger orders with sites they trust.
Enhance Your Site with Customer Reviews and Testimonials
This one is a no-brainer, and will be of value to virtually any business or professional service. However, PeopleMertrics suggests that a few negative words within the positive content adds even more to credibility.
Consumers are more likely to purchase a product that has received a thumbs-up from others who have bought it. And they’re even more likely to purchase a product from a retailer that makes positive and negative reviews available on their website.
Offer an Alternative to Debit and Credit Card Payments
Obviously, this advice applies only to direct e-commerce sites. If you are looking for a general contractor to sign you on as a subcontractor for mechanical services, for example, I doubt the decision-making would be based on whether you can accept cash, cheques or credit cards.
Make Your Payment Form More Appealing
Again, relevant for direct e-commerce sales, though less useful for higher-ticket items (and making a professional site into an e-commerce clone probably wouldn’t be helpful for credibility.)
So, it seems, the tips for a good e-commerce site will be one-in four useful for you if you want to convey professionalism. We should all make testimonials a big part of our websites. As for the other suggestions, if you have widgets to sell directly and want to be paid on the spot, go for it, otherwise, leave these ideas to the retailers.
