customer experience

Making Users Buy Online – The Importance of Building Online Trust

By Martin Rosenmejer,
User Experience Research Consultant
at fhios.

With online sales rising to 9.8% of the total retail sales in the UK in 2008* and 12.6% of businesses selling online (Office of National Statistics), the role of company websites is still enhancing often becoming a central part of the offered customer experience.

In order to make people purchasing online, it is crucial for companies to have a website, which is trusted by the users. This may not be breaking news to the reader, however, a number of recent articles and blogs by usability experts and our own research at fhios indicate that this topic is as relevant as ever. This article briefly discusses some of the issues related to the challenge of building online trust.

When conducting user research, we often see that users are cautious with online shopping being aware that internet transactions can be vulnerable to fraudulent behaviour. When a tested website does not meet the expectations of the users, they tend to be discouraged and lose their willingness to revisit the website, join a community or purchase from the website. This cautious behaviour may depend on prior web browsing experience, age or other parameters; however, a general key issue for accommodating this behaviour and build online trust is to obtain a deep understanding of the end users i.e. via usability testing.

Another significant issue that can enhance trust and make users purchase online is using third-party payment or verification solutions. A user may be sceptical towards a website but is interested in the products, and here co-branding with a well-known provider of online payment solutions make users more willing to complete the transaction. This willingness increases when the actual transaction takes place on the third-party website (users leave the company website to complete the transaction) or payment details are verified by a trusted brand or standard.

But users don’t only trust well known payment standards or brands. Urban et. al. (2009) state in a recent study that online peers have invaluable influence on users’ willingness to purchase online. In our research, we have seen a similar tendency, where especially younger users tend to rely on posted user reviews. This peer influence is based in the quantity (many unison reviews gives a stronger message) and quality (positive/negative content) of the user reviews, which both seem to have a strong impact on the willingness to buy online. In line with previous studies, Urban et. al., stress that the implications of peer influence are significant and should not be underestimated. Thus, a bad reputation can instantly diffuse to a large number of users. On the other hand, the same peer-to-peer communication can be a powerful tool for building a good reputation if the website provides a great customer experience.

Looking more into web design and usability, a key aspect, widely recognized among experts, is the need for simplicity (e.g. see Nielsen 1999 or Furman 2009). Thus, navigation should be intuitive and easy for the target users to find relevant information or complete essential tasks (i.e. login, signing up for a newsletter, purchasing products). Simplicity is also a keyword when it comes to organising information. Many websites tend to place too much information on the homepage in order to make ‘easy access’ to information with ‘a minimum of clicks’. Surely, few clicks and quick accessibility are essential, however, too much content often rather leads to confusion and no communication at all.

Another method to obtain simplicity is making the user decide the content on the website via personalisation features. Users are exposed to enormous amounts of information and as an increasing number of websites offer personalisation features, users expect such features on ‘information-heavy’ websites. Recent research by Taylor et. al. (2009) illuminate that personalisation features on websites increase the trust relationship between the user and the website despite a potential privacy concern. Personalisation features can be beneficial and users often refer to a website like BBC.co.uk as a good example of value added via personalisation. However, in some cases personalisation is simply not the right solution due to the character of the website, character of target users or project constraints (budget or time to launch etc.). These contextual parameters need to be taken into consideration when advising our clients.

The above only outlines a few of many aspects that are important when building trust online. At the end of the day, building trust and ensuring a great customer experience is about meeting (and exceeding) the needs of the target users. Involving the end users via usability testing is a useful way for identifying user needs and an essential part of developing a trustworthy website.

Please read more about our expertise at fhios.com.

* Total sales excluding non-financial sector businesses

© 2010 fhios insights.