By Taral Patel
With over one million third-party sellers on Amazon, standing out from your competitors can certainly seem like an impossible feat. This is an even greater challenge if your product is fairly generic, or if customers are faced with many similar options. On Amazon, every cent counts, and customers have no problem switching out for an item that is merely a few pennies cheaper.
The key to standing out on Amazon is trust.
Unfortunately, we have all likely had an experience of buyer’s remorse when shopping online. If the item you receive looks nothing like it did on the website, chances are that you are going to be a little bit skeptical the next time.
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Establishing this trust from the very beginning is crucial for closing that initial sale.
So, how can you design an Amazon product page to build customer confidence? Let’s discuss.
Ask for the Whole Picture in Your Review Invite
Reviews heavily influence customers when they are shopping online. When it comes to comparison shopping, the amount of reviews that an item has can have a greater impact on the purchasing decision than the actual cost. According to a report published by Baymard Institute, Amazon customers were more likely to purchase an item that had more customer reviews, even if the overall rating was lower than the competing product.
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Customer reviews will build trust with shoppers because they are simply more likely to believe what another customer is saying than what your brand messaging does. The key is to gather honest and detailed feedback that provides other consumers with the information they need for a confident decision.
Unfortunately, most customers will not leave feedback on their own, so you will need to have an outreach strategy in place. Make sure that you are asking questions regarding the experience to pry out more detailed responses, like these customer reviews for Trustpilot do.
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Although these are not necessarily for Amazon, the formatting for feedback is a great pattern to follow. These reviews ask customers to explain both the pros and cons of their experience, as well as their overall feeling. Seeing this highly opinionated and genuine feedback will make new customers feel much more comfortable making a purchase than just seeing a generic star rating.
Use Realistic Representation of Your Product
The quality of your product visuals have a strong influence over customers’ confidence in their purchasing decisions. Of course, you want to include high quality photos, but be sure they are still an accurate representation of the product. If the image is clearly photoshopped or is a basic stock photo used by multiple sellers, it will immediately stir up skepticism.
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If you are selling a clothing item, you may want to show how it looks on models of various weights and heights.
For other consumer items, offering a comparison scale or measurement details is also quite beneficial – like Cuisinart does with their products.
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Be Easy to Reach
If you’ve ever had an issue with an Amazon purchase, you know that contacting customer service can be a hassle. Furthermore, if you purchased an item from a third-party seller, Amazon’s customer support may not be able to help the situation at all.
Let your customers know that they can avoid this trouble all together by sharing your company’s contact information clearly and openly – both on your product page and through a purchase follow up email.
Even if a customer is content with their purchase, this peace of mind can certainly make them feel more comfortable. Offer multiple options for contact, such as an email address, phone number, live chat option, or a customer service contact form to get in touch with your e-commerce website.
Use FAQs as a Guide
Most Amazon product pages have an “FAQ” section where brands can respond directly to common customer inquiries. Be sure that you are consistently updating and answering recent questions.
Look at the most common FAQs and answer them within the description so all of the information necessary is listed. Keep in mind, ignoring a customer query could kill a sale in its tracks.
Shoppers like to see that a brand is responsive and engages with their customers, even on Amazon. In fact, 89% of consumers actively look to see if a business took the time to respond to a customer.
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As you design your product page, put yourself in your customer’s shoes.
What elements about your page would cause concern and what would make you feel confident that your product will meet expectations?
Building a sense of trust is critical to conversions, and you only have a short amount of time to establish it with a new customer.
Taral Patel is a digital marketer specializing in content marketing. He works at E2M Solutions Inc as a content strategist and helps brands in building a prominent online presence through his advanced content marketing techniques. You can read his post How did a Blog Post Earn 10K Organic Traffic in 3 Months Without Promotion which explains some of his techniques for building organic traffic on your website. Connect with him on @connect2taral
Amazon stock photo by Worawee Meepian/Shutterstock
