Published on September 20th, 2019 | by Jeremy Alderman

How Trust Badges Impact Website Conversions

Consumers are wising up, and paying closer attention to the websites they buy from. The FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center’s most frequent complaint of cybercrime “was related to online shopping: non-payment or non-delivery of goods purchased,” PC Magazine reported. They went onto say that 25 percent of readers surveyed said they “had experienced a cyber attack like malware, credit card fraud, or ransomware” while shopping online.

Due to the increase of cyber crime in the e-commerce space, consumers are now looking for ways to save when they give their credit card information to online retailers. That is where trust badges come in. Having trust badges on your online business can have a significant impact on website conversions.

What are Trust Badges?

Trust badges are a secure strategy businesses use to help their customers feel safe when making online purchases. A trust badge that is displayed on a website, particularly on a payment or transaction page, increases trust and security to the customer when handing over sensitive credit card information. Online businesses can see an improved conversion rate because customers are more likely to complete the payment when they feel the transaction is secure.

Forbes explains, “A trust seal verifies to visitors that a website is legitimate. Data is collected by the third-party trust seal company that confirms that the business is authentic.” Aside from a branded badge on a website, these seals can also be associated with secure sockets layer, or SSL for short. You’ll know if a website has one if the URL begins with “https” instead of “http,” and a padlock icon appears next to the URL. This simply means that your site has been verified and there is a secure transmission for customers to safely enter their credit card information.”

Trust badges make online shoppers feel safe

As Crazy Egg says, “When an online shopper lands on a website, a substantial amount of trust needs to be built in order to get their sale.” What Crazy Egg found is that “trust seals gave [online shoppers] the greatest sense of trust when shopping on a website.”

Trust Badges By the Numbers

Do you really need a trust badge on your website? If your visitors enter credit card information for shopping transactions, the answer is a resounding yes. Just how important is this though? Let’s take a look at some real numbers that make the case for adding a trust badge.

Blue Fountain Media had a simple checkout page on their website and ran a split test to see if trust badges made a significant difference in website conversions. The only thing they changed on their checkout page was the addition of a trust badge. They said after making this one simple change, their sales increased 42 percent!

The eCommerce store House of Kids ran a similar split test to Blue Fountain Media. They found that by only adding a trust badge, their website conversions increased 32 percent.

Clean Energy Experts “increased its conversions by a staggering 137 percent” after it added a trust badge.

Still not convinced? Here is some proof that not having a trust badge could actually cost you customers:

Barilliance reported that one of the major reasons shoppers abandon their shopping carts mid-transaction was because they had “concerns about payment security.” Many people they surveyed said they would not complete a transaction if they felt unsafe.

ConversionXL Institute performed a study that concluded that 62 percent of respondents “reported having security concerns when making online purchases.”

Again, according to Forbes, “88 percent of American online shoppers stated that trust seals were important for sites. In fact, 79 percent of shoppers expected to see some sort of seal on a sites’ home page. Plus, approximately 70 percent of online shoppers canceled their online order because they did not ‘trust’ the transaction” when they could not find a trust badge on the website.

The list goes on, but the statistics seem to speak for themselves. Consumers are more likely to cancel their online orders if they don’t feel safe, and trust badges make them feel safer

Bottom Line – Trust Badges Can Yield More Website Conversions

Though there is no evidence to suggest that a trust badge will guarantee a sale, the evidence seems to point to the fact that websites with trust badges have a boosted conversion rate of making a sale, once a customer has decided to make a purchase. Therefore, you may want to go ahead and invest in one, if you have been debating about whether or not to get a trust badge for your website.

Read more security tips for your website to ensure you get the most out of your online business.

Tags: conversions, how, impact, trust badges

About the Author

Jeremy Alderman is an online journalist from Scottsdale, Arizona who actively studies trends in marketing and technology. He is now focusing on covering the latest news in the cybersecurity space. In his free time, you can find him exploring local hotspots outdoors and catching up on his favorite sports teams.