How to Reduce Cart Abandonment Using Trust Badges

On average, 69.5% of shopping carts are abandoned across all industries.

Just imagine what this means. 69.5% of your profits could just be slipping through your fingers!

To figure out why this rate is so high, Baymard ran a study examining the top reasons behind cart abandonment.

The chances are – your e-commerce store has at least one of these problems.

Even if you think you’ve covered all your bases, visitors may still find issues with your site. If they can’t immediately find something they need, they’ll automatically assume you don’t have it. Which means you need to be transparent about the value of your site.

This is where trust badges come into play. You can use them to quickly assure potential customers that they don’t need to worry about the pain points that Baynard found.

If you do them right, trust badges can be the key to driving conversions through the roof. Let’s explore exactly how to implement them effectively.

Free Download: 60 Hand-Crafted Trust Badges

What Are Trust Badges?

Trust badges are little webpage markers that instantly show visitors some of your most crucial information.

They’re necessary because people typically only spend 5 to 30 seconds on a landing page. After that, you’ve lost them. That’s why you need trust badges to capture their attention and present important details as quickly and clearly as possible.

What you can do right now is run a quick site audit. Check out your online store; does it use trust badges to establish credibility?

As for which trust badge you need, let’s go through those checkout abandonment reasons:

Reason №1: Extra Costs Are Too High

Extra costs usually consist of taxes and shipping costs. While you can’t do anything about taxes, you can change your shipping costs.

Though this may cut into your margin, various studies have proven that free shipping can increase conversions by as much as 90%!

Show it with these badges and your conversions will also go up.

If you want to download these ones or many other hand-crafted badges – just follow the link.

So – If you can carefully calculate your costs and revenue to make room for free shipping, get ready to skyrocket your business. After all, people clearly care about free shipping. And if you provide it, don’t make them wait to find out; let them know immediately with a trust badge.

Reason №2: Had To Create Account / Long or Complex Process

“You need to create an account and sign in to finalize your purchase.”

This phrase scares away online shoppers in droves. And its why these two reasons rank 2nd and 3rd on the cart abandonment causes survey.

People shop online because they want to save time. Your goal is to give them what they want, so make the checkout process as simple as possible.

These are the examples of the badges that can help you to fight the problem.

Don’t ask for any more than an email before directing visitors to make a purchase. Remember: You can always follow-up for more information after the sale. It’s quite easy to entice people to register if you can offer them extra value (such as special discounts or promos).

All in all, if you clearly display these trust badges, you’re directly signifying that you won’t be stealing your customers’ time.

Reason №3: Didn’t Trust Site

$16 billion was stolen from 15.4 million U.S. consumers in 2016, and this number keeps growing every year. With all the news about hacks and breaches, it should come as no surprise that security issues are a primary point of friction for customers.

In response, your job is to prove to your visitors that they can trust you. And you can do this by adding a security trust badge on your page.

Unlike with other badges, this one can’t just be copied from another resource or even made yourself. For a legitimate certification, your store must be verified by a third party.

This is where websites like TrustLock can help you out. Their verification process takes just 24 hours and effectively eliminates some of your visitors’ biggest concerns.

Reason №4: Delivery Too Slow

Even though your delivery service is most likely outsourced, customers will hold you accountable for it.

If you’re facing problems with your delivery vendors, it’s worth considering a switch. Unreliable shipping can be one of the biggest detriments to your business. Seriously – one study found 40% of shopping carts abandoned if delivery estimates were 8+ days.

Add the trust badges on your website – and your visitors will know that there will be no delivery issues.

On the other hand, if your operations are running smoothly, don’t be shy about it! Emphasize your speedy deliveries right on your product’s page.

Reason №5: Returns Policy

30% of all products ordered online are returned.

You can look for the roots of this problem all you want. And you can work to improve your product quality and your target marketing. But the reality is that some percentage of your goods will always be returned.

What you need to do is reassure your buyers that this process is painless before they make their purchase. Tell them exactly how much time they have to make a return. A trust badge guaranteeing a refund policy will give them that desired sense of security.

Reason №6: Lack of Payment Options

Though the vast majority of online shoppers have credit cards, there are some people that prefer alternative options like PayPal. If a customer has a favored e-commerce payment method, he or she will expect to be able to use it in your store.

If you offer only bank card check out, it may be worth looking into PayPal. And for the methods you do offer, don’t forget to mention them with trust badges.

Conclusion

Every day, you could be losing up to 69.5% of your profits. Trust badges exist to significantly decrease this number by clearly and briefly providing your most valuable information.

That being said, you shouldn’t put every single one of these trust badges on your website. If you do, it’ll look too spammy and end up driving viewers away. Instead, analyze your data, talk with your customers, and choose the ones that best fit your company.

Lastly – don’t look for trust badges on Google. To build a real connection with your customers, you have to present them something authentically yours. Thus, you’ll want to either create your own badges that match your website theme.

If you like the example of the trust badges in the article – we have a great news for you! You can get all of these badges for free, add them on your website and raise your conversions in a few simple clicks.