That\u2019s a pretty depressing number when you think about it. Imagine if 98% of the people who walked into a grocery store left without buying anything!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019re managing an ecommerce website, reducing your site\nabandonment number can have a huge impact on your revenue. You can increase\nyour sales without spending a penny more to attract more website visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Baymard Institute recently released the third edition<\/a> of their ecommerce checkout study that focuses on how site seals and other checkout page elements help build customer trust and increase ecommerce conversion rates. The updated study includes several actionable insights, such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s hash it out.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Before we get into the fun stuff (how to increase your ecommerce site sales) let\u2019s cover a few basics \u2014 who published this study and how they did it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Baymard Institute is a research website that specializes in ecommerce UX research and best practices. They\u2019re widely regarded as a go-to authority for best practices in ecommerce website usability, UX, and design. In fact, more than 60% of Fortune 500 companies use their research studies (we do, too\u2026 but we\u2019re just an INC 5000 company, not a Fortune 500\u2026 yet!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2013 and 2016, Baymard released studies analyzing how site seals impact consumer perceptions of trust\/security<\/a> on ecommerce websites. Baymard replicated their research in 2019, and also added in findings from several other studies they performed. They use data from studies they run on their clients\u2019 websites, as well as data from consumer surveys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s what they found:<\/p>\n\n\n\n How much does the customer\u2019s perception of your website security impact your website\u2019s conversion rate? Baymard\u2019s cart abandonment study found that trust \/ security was the fifth most common reason that customers abandon an order \u2014 18% of people reported abandoning a purchase because they didn\u2019t trust the site:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Food for thought: how much would your site\u2019s revenue\nincrease if you could get 18% more of your site visitors to complete a\npurchase?<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019d love it if everyone understood web security enough to\nanalyze a website and make a decision based on the site\u2019s technical security protections\nand their organizational track record. Unfortunately, 99% of web users don\u2019t\nhave that level of web security know-how, and it\u2019s probably not realistic to\nexpect them to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the real world, most people make the decision whether to\ntrust a site or not based on visual cues and gut feel. In other words, they\ndecide based on instinct or their first impression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s why research shows that site seals impact customer\nbehavior during the checkout process. Site seals work because:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s how Baymard explains it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The average user\u2019s perception of a site\u2019s security is largely determined by their \u201cgut feeling\u201d, which \u2013 beyond how much they trust the brand \u2013 is to a large extent observed to be directed by how visually secure the page looks. If you\u2019re managing a website for Google, Paypal, Amazon, or\nanother brand that\u2019s nearly universally known and trusted, you\u2019ll probably find\nthat site seals are less effective:<\/p>\n\n\n\n We see that when testing sites from large brands (i.e. Apple, Microsoft, Walmart) users have few security concerns, even with a minimum of \u201cvisual security\u201d simply because they are large corporations and well-known brands. By contrast, when testing sites that are newer, less well-known, or more niche than these major brands, we have however observed users raise security concerns very easily if there are no visual clues.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n But let\u2019s face it: 99% of us are working with brands that are less well known than Apple, Microsoft, and Walmart. For all the rest of us, site seals can be a highly effective tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s why: Site seals work, in part, by \u201cborrowing\u201d trust from the brand displayed in the site seal. Let\u2019s use an example to show how that works: Bob is shopping for the perfect table for his new home. He found the table he wants but it\u2019s from a website he\u2019s never heard of, so he\u2019s not sure if he can trust it. But then he notices it\u2019s got a Norton Secured site seal \u2014 if Norton says Aunt Annie\u2019s Antique Store is secure, Bob figures it\u2019s OK. So he goes ahead and completes the purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If your website isn\u2019t widely known and trusted, a proven\nsite seal let\u2019s you \u201cborrow\u201d recognition and trust, boosting customer trust and\npurchases. For small businesses, this can be a huge benefit. For larger\nbusinesses, though, it may not work. If you\u2019re Amazon.com, your own brand is\nprobably more widely recognized than the site seal, so there won\u2019t be as much\nbenefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Which site seal is best? Which one is most recognized and trusted to drive conversion rate increases? Based on Baymard\u2019s research, the competiton\u2019s not even close \u2014 the Norton Secured site seal (which comes with Symantec<\/a> and DigiCert SSL certificates) is almost twice as trusted as the runners-up and nearly 10x as trusted as an average site seal:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Note: because the question asked respondents which was \u201cbest,\u201d this doesn\u2019t mean that respondents didn\u2019t recognize or trust the lower seals \u2014 just that they trusted the Norton seal more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
About the Baymard Institute Study<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
18% of Users Abandon Their Purchase Because They Don\u2019t Trust the Site<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Reasons](\"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/baymard-abandonment-reasons.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nSite Seals Work by Referencing Known Brands + Creating a Good First\nImpression<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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[A] visual clue that during testing also proved effective at increasing the perceived level of security (and adding robustness to the encapsulation) is the use of \u201csite seals\u201d, such as trust badges, SSL seals, and similar symbols suggesting trustworthiness.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nSite Seals Are Most Effective for Small & Medium Companies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cNorton Secured\u201d Is the Reigning Champion of Site Seals<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Baymard](\"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/baymard-site-seal-trust-1024x625.jpg\")
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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"Credit](\"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/fare-harbor-checkout-example.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"Checkout](\"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/checkout-glitches.png\")
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