Online Shoppers, Mobile Payments Users’ Trust Comes From Various Angles

While mobile payments have delivered a lot of value by themselves, security has remained a concern that’s top of mind for just about every user. As it turns out, though—based on a study sent our way from the Reboot SEO Agency—trust works several ways, and certain features of websites can both inspire and damage trust, making them more or less likely to be used by turns.

The Reboot study found that several points actually make a website especially trustworthy. For instance, 47 percent of respondents found social media activity a clear sign of a website’s trustworthiness. The exact same number found “recognized trust seals” a sufficient sign, and nearly as many—45 percent—consider an affiliation with “trusted websites” to be a good sign. Rounding out the top five were an SSL certificate at 43 percent, and a listed address and phone number at 40 percent.

However, some signs are a lot more clear when it comes to distrust. Anyone still using pop-up advertising is asking for trouble, as 65 percent won’t trust a site engaging in such practices. For 56 percent, grammar and spelling mistakes are a clear sign of an untrustworthy site.

Moreover, 79 percent of shoppers make it clear that a misspelling or grammatical error is cause enough to make them abandon a site altogether. Large numbers of ads in general are enough to turn off 52 percent, and rounding out the top five here are large discounts and broken links for 45 percent, and blurry images for 43 percent.

The biggest issue, however, is mobile payments. Fully 92 percent of respondents will not trust a website that uses “unfamiliar payment methods.”

Establishing trust is vital to ensuring that shoppers come back, and the idea that trust can be built with some users just by including well-known mobile payments options is a pretty big surprise by any standard. Sure, there’s a lot more that goes into it than that, but knowing what to do and what to avoid can at least be a help.

So with the holiday shopping season coming to a close, it’s a good time to start getting ready for the next one by running your spellcheck and getting the right mobile payments tools in place.