| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 01/05/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 18 |
| Copyright: Other |
the net result
this week: safe and sound
In today’s market, getting to a position where your site visitors and customers trust you is of paramount importance, though not particularly easy to achieve.What do you think the key reasons are why consumers feel uncomfortable about buying on-line? It’s always safety and security issues. They’re worried about two main areas.
The first is giving their financial details on-line, keying in their credit card and wondering where the information is going and who’s going to have access to it. We can all relate to that can’t we?
As an active on-line purchaser, I must say I would think twice about buying from a site that looked shady.
The second is giving out their personal information, some of it quite detailed and again wondering what use will be made of it and who will be able to see it.
A recent survey from market research firm Jupiter showed that nearly 66% of on-line consumers do not trust e-commerce Web sites.
While it’s not entirely clear why this is happening, I suspect it’s a lot to do with human nature -Êwe’re nervous about things that are new to us until we understand and get used to them. Just look at the history of the mail-order industry and telephone ordering services.
After a slow start, the position has changed dramatically and I’m sure that over the next few years, we’ll see a similar change in attitudes towards Internet shopping.
The media has not helped consumers to feel comfortable with buying on-line. The intense coverage of the topic has sometimes been sensible and sometimes scaremongering.
One of the biggest stories to date must be about Expedia, one of today’s leading on-line travel sites, which lost between $4-$6m, through the use of stolen credit cards. Thankfully, this is type of occurrence is rare.
Findings from another research study by NetEffect Systems revealed that nearly 70% of all e-commerce transactions are cancelled before the final buy stage. So why might that be? Is it because people just can’t get over the final hurdle of typing in their credit-card number on-line because of a lack of trust and confidence? Very possibly.
So what can you do to create a sense of safety and security for your customers? One of the biggest areas is the call centre or phoneline.
The ability to research and select a holiday on-line and then simply call someone to check availability and make the booking is a perfect solution, and one which the vast majority of Web users are happy with.
Most consumers still prefer to confirm their booking by speaking to someone and recent research shows that 67% feel uncomfortable about buying from a firm that can only be reached on-line.
In contrast to products like CDs, books and low-cost flights, all of which are perfect for on-line ordering, holidays are very different. They’re a lot more expensive to start with and often have so many variables to consider (eg room type, departure airport, class of flight) that booking on-line is just not practical.
Until the next generation of user-friendly booking engines come on the scene, dovetail your Web activities with your call centre or phone lines.
But the best thing to give confidence to someone buying on-line is security. That’s why providing clear policy statements on privacy of data and security of information is crucial.
Every fortnight, Karen Gee from eDreams.com helps agents and operators to get the most out of the Internet
Building confidence and reputationnLOOKANDFEEL
Convey your company’s reputation and build confidence in your customers through a well designed and well maintained site. This is about the overall look and feel of your site and includes design, branding, navigation and maintenance.
nCALLCENTRES
Dovetail your call-centre planning with your Web site planning, allowing customers to transfer seamlessly from research andplanning to buying. Look at how prominent the number and opening hours appear on your site. Sales agents need to be completely aware about what’s posted on your Web site today so they can answer any questions knowledgeably and improve sales rateconversion.
nSECURITYSTATEMENTS
Interested in getting an extra 28% ofcustomers to buy from your site? Thenprovide clear policy statements on privacy of data and security of information. Research shows that this is the number of extra consumers who would feel sufficientlyconfident to buy on-line. It also shows the amount of business you might be missing out on if you don’t.
nSECURITYPRODUCTS
Although Verisign (www.verisign.com) is American and expensive, the site has some interesting security products and some useful information. More relevant to the UK is the Which? Web Trader Scheme. For moreinformation, see www.which.net/webtrader/index.html