Creating Consumer Confidence: The Secret Ingredient of Internet Success

Creating Consumer Confidence:
The Secret Ingredient of Internet Success
While your target consumers may have found your website, there is no guarantee they will share their personal or financial information. Understanding the opportunities and obstacles the commercial Web presents and using the proven ingredients to Web success outlined in this whitepaper will increase customer confidence and enable you to generate more sales.
Online retailers must make consumers comfortable on their websites, instilling the necessary levels of confidence required to support the sharing of personal and financial information and ultimately completing purchases. If the aim is to generate a measurable increase in sales, the solution is to include trust signals.
Opportunities and Obstacles
As the Web population continues to grow, opportunities abound for businesses looking to expand their sales through online channels. Converting this existing potential, however, requires understanding where the growth will be and how to overcome the obstacles, and what consumers need to be confident Internet users and shoppers.
Opportunities and Obstacles In just a two-year period, undaunted by economic conditions, the online population that makes purchases on the Web increased by nine percentage points. In research conducted for the Pew Internet & American Life Project in 2007, results showed 66% of the online population had made a purchase online. In the same survey question repeated in April 2009, 75% of online adults reported having purchased a product online. This increase follows years of fairly steady increases since March 2000, when the Pew Internet research of online shopping began. At that time, about half of all online adults (48%) had ever purchased a product online.
The opportunity is clear. As the percentage of adults online that visit websites applies to a larger number of people year after year, the percentage of shoppers buying online increases simultaneously.
Embedded in this growing opportunity are several significant obstacles. Pew's research points to several factors that can interfere with consumers' online purchasing behaviors.
2When asked about their feelings while going online, most 79% of Internet users say Internet users indicate they have felt eagerness (53%), relief they are confident they will (63%), or confidence (79%). Of concern, however, is the 21% "make the right purchase of Internet users already shopping on the Web who indicate decision" while going online a lack of confidence that they "will make the right purchase to look for information in decision." In addition, feelings of being overwhelmed (30%), buying a product. confused (32%), or frustrated (43%) affect Internet users, as measured in the Pew surveys. Even one of these feelings can undermine the confidence that shoppers want and need to 78% of Internet users make buying on the Web a habit.agree, "Shopping online is convenient." This is immediate obstacle that needs to be overcome among consumers who are shopping online now. It also points to a bigger potential problem among new Internet users and new online shoppers on the way, who represent future growth. Clearly, websites that can overcome a lack of confidence among these consumers will be better positioned to increase sales and domi-nate their competition.
Feelings about shopping online by Internet usersPercent of Internet users who say they have felt this way while going online to look for information or assistance in buying a product All Internet Users
Confident that you will make the right purchase decision 79%Relieved by information found online 63%Eager to share new knowledge with others 53%Frustrated by the lack of information or inability to find information online 43%Confused by information found online 32%Overwhelmed by the amount of information found online 30%Source: Survey by Pew Internet & American Life Project. Survey, September 2007.
Fifty-eight percent of Internet users report having at least one of the three worries: frustrated by lack of information, confused about information found, and feeling overwhelmed by the amount of information online.
3While most Internet users say they feel that online information will get them where they want to go with their Web shopping, "sizable numbers express worries about their online shopping 75% of Internet users say,experiences," according to Pew In... [download for more]