Security and price major concerns to European online shoppers
Security and price are the biggest concerns for European online shoppers and it could be costing the UK economy more than £1billion, a report has revealed.
With an estimated £1bn of online transactions abandoned in the UK last year, consumer security concerns are potentially causing retailers to miss out on valuable revenues.
Demonstrating the importance of trust and familiarity the report, created by Infas and Trusted Shops, also found that 63 per cent of shoppers only choose shops that they have shopped at before.
‘This research shows that with increasing internationalisation and retailers looking to operate outside their own borders – showing potential customers that a shop is safe and reputable will become more important thanever,” said Jean-Marc Noel, co-founder and managing director of Trusted Shops.
“If you want to be successful in today’s online trade, you should focus on security, customer confidence and a good price policy. These are simple truths that is now backed up by hard research.”
Two thirds of those surveyed (66 per cent) said a trustmark which has tested the shop for its reliability beforehand and which guarantees safety for online purchasing, was important or very important to their purchasing decision.
“Displaying a trustmark demonstrates our commitment to providing complete customer trust. It has dramatically lowered our cancellation rate. We’ve also had success by sharing reviews on Google and other platforms as this builds social proof which can help customers feel safer and more confident when clicking the ‘Confirm order’ button,” explained Steve Warnock at online hardware store hardwarexpress.co.uk.
The displaying of trustmarks were most important to those surveyed in Germany and the UK but far less concern was expressed by customers in France, Spain and Poland.
When initially choosing an online shop the results were surprising with social media hardly playing a role (only 8%) and 40 per cent typed in the URL manually.
About Trusted Shops:
Trusted Shops is the leading service provider for secure Online shopping in Europe.Since the company was founded in 1999, over 10,000 retailers have been accredited. Trusted Shops offers a comprehensive service for the benefit ofboth - shop operator and consumer, which encompasses Customer Rating, LegalCompliance and Money-back guarantee.