Let us face it, nothing is more annoying than seeing customers load up their carts and then vanish before clicking the “Buy” button. If you have been running Shopify stores for a while, you know this feeling all too well. Even more intriguing is that cart abandonment frequently occurs among first-time customers or those who have never purchased from your store.
If you take the time to get in touch with them (as we do), you will find that they lack trust in one another. They did not find enough trust signals in your store to feel secure about making a purchase. When trust issues start blocking your business growth, it is time to take action.
For Shopify store owners, lowering the cart abandonment rate is one of the most difficult tasks. But the good news? One of the simplest and most successful solutions is to strategically use trust signals throughout your store.
This blog post will explain trust signals, their importance and how to use them to convert more carts into conversions and win over hesitant customers.
✅ What Are Trust Signals?
Before sharing the super effects of trust signals, let us take a brief look at what they stand for. Trust signals are textual or visual cues that reassure prospective customers about the legitimacy, dependability and safety of your store. Throughout the decision-making process, they boost confidence and lessen uncertainty.
Do you recall looking for the ‘Norton Secured‘ or “MacFree Secured” badges when buying software in the past? All of these things happened to us, including buying a dress from a store that had a return policy badge in the store. Most surprisingly, these were all signs of trust that persuaded us to make purchases.
While some trust signals are evidence of a company’s behavior or dependability, others are merely logos that provide confirmation that a retailer or website is a member of a particular trade association. Although trust signals can and do take many different forms, they all serve the same purpose of enhancing potential customers’ confidence in doing business with a company. Therefore, conversion rate optimization includes trust signals.
Here are the most popular types of trust signals that you will see in practice:
1. Guarantee Trust Signals:
Provide badges or promises like money-back guarantees, return policies or satisfaction guarantees in your online store. This type of trust signals that you can put it all together by yourselves, no approval from other organizations needed.
For example, the Eight Sleep website highlights guarantee trust signals like ‘30-night risk-free trial‘, ‘5-year warranty‘, and so on.
2. Social Proof Trust Signals:
Gain credibility by showcasing your brand’s trustworthiness through user-generated content, ratings, reviews and testimonials. In the present online world, this is the most practiced trust signal and efficiency is higher than others. In your Shopify online store, you can showcase reviews from Google, Trustpilot, Yelp, Foursquare and other platforms.
3. Trust by Association Trust Signals:
Displaying the logos of reputable partners, payment processors, or security badges your store uses can boost confidence. On their websites, many businesses display the logos of well-known brands as an implicit sign of their reliability. This is particularly prevalent in new businesses and young, rapidly expanding online-based enterprises.
4. Membership Trust Signals:
Professional organization membership is frequently used as a sign of trust. Perhaps the best example of this in the US is membership in the Better Business Bureau, whose logo is recognizable to millions of people at thousands of establishments nationwide.
🛒 How Trust Signals Reduce Cart Abandonment on Shopify
The important part is about to begin. Now we will explore how you can creatively utilize trust signals on your Shopify store and directly create an impact on reducing cart abandonment. To better grasp the significance, let us first review some statistics regarding ‘cart abandonment.’
- Approximately 70.19% of online shopping carts were abandoned in 2024, marking a slight increase from the previous year
- Lack of trust in the site’s handling of credit card information causes 25% of users to leave.
Here are some tips for using trust signals effectively and how they can reduce cart abandonment on Shopify:
1. Build Customer Confidence in Payment Security
Customers are more likely to abandon carts if they feel their payment details are not secure. So you need to gain the trust of users by taking the necessary measurements. Here are the popular trust signals that you can use:
- SSL certificate icon (🔒 Secure Checkout)
- Payment gateway logos (Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, etc.)
- Badges like ‘100% Secure Payment‘ or ‘Trusted by Thousands‘
For example, Asos fashion brand provides payment gateway logos on their homepage to create trust.
2. Showcase Product & Store Credibility
You can provide trust signals that are generated based on your sales data. It can be verified by customer star ratings, ‘Best Seller‘ or ‘Top Rated‘ badges, press mentions and so on. It will help your Shoppers if they are hesitant or unsure about product quality or seller reliability.
3. Clarify Return & Refund Policies
A frequent reason for cart abandonment is uncertainty about returns, which frequently results in last-minute drop-offs. To reduce cart abandonment, you can showcase trust signals that will give them surety. Such as: visible ‘Easy Returns‘ or ‘30-Day Money Back Guarantee‘ icons. You can also practise adding FAQ sections linked from the cart or checkout.
4. Display Social Proof & Popularity
You will be surprised to know that each additional 0.5-star rating on Google can increase your business’s revenue by 20%. Hopefully, now you can visualize the bigger picture of how social proof impacts your business. And it is one of the most popular forms of trust signals. It encourages people to follow the decisions of others; witnessing others’ purchases fosters trust. Here are examples of trust signals you can use:
- Real-time sales notifications. Such as ‘Someone from NY just bought this!‘
- ‘X people have given 5 stars on Google‘ or ‘x% people on Trustpilot trusted us‘ banners.
💡Tips: If you want to streamline getting stunning reviews on Google, Yelp or Trustpilot platforms directly from your website, then you can get the TrustSync app on your Shopify store. With this app, you can automate review request emails for 25+ platforms, manage negative feedback and so on.
5. Showcase Transparent Shipping Info
Due to modern fintech technology, now you can sell your products globally. Though there remain some risk concerns for your potential customers regarding timely shipping and whether payment is done correctly or not. You can use trust signals, like showcasing transparent shipping information. It will assist you in eliminating ambiguous or hidden shipping information that results in cart abandonment.
The common practices are adding free shipping badges, sharing estimated delivery dates on product and checkout pages, providing a ‘Track your order‘ option, etc.
📈 Bonus: Use Heatmaps & Abandonment Analytics
To maximize conversion on your Shopify store, you should start monitoring its performance. This can be easily done by using tools like Hotjar, Lucky Orange, or Shopify analytics. This will help you identify where trust breaks down in the customer journey and optimize those touchpoints with relevant trust signals.
Increase Credibility of Your Shopify Store with Trust Signals
Trust signals function similarly to silent salesmen. It provides customers with constant reassurance. Strategically integrating them into your Shopify product, cart and checkout pages lowers cart abandonment rates, fosters trust and improves conversions. Get started with trust signals now on your website and reduce cart abandonment.
We would love to hear your thoughts and experiences with implementing trust signals on your Shopify store. Also, do not forget to subscribe to our blog and keep getting useful tips and tricks.
