Aussie web sites need to build more trust
Aussie web sites need to build more trust
Mar 30, 2005: Research carried out on web sites in Australia has discovered that many users are still weary about passing on their personal details and financial information on to web sites because of a lack of trust, but there are simple ways to instil confidence in these potential customers.
Gary Bunker, the Asia Pacific director of Usability By Design, said that his company has tested 300/400 web sites over the last two years, and found common themes of distrust and scepticism by customers towards sites that do not spell out how they aim to protect user details.
"Through our research, we gathered shoppers who wanted to buy items from online sites, gave them money, checked the items were in stock, and gave them a broadband setup to use. We measured how much they spent of what they set out to spend.
"On the best sites, 62 percent of the planned spend was achieved. On worst sites, nothing was spent. Usability factors were only factor stopping the other 40 percent of planned spend."
Bunker says that users were put off from spending on some sites because they did not like the wording on shop pages. They did not feel like they could trust the site. For instance, one DVD rental website offered a 30 day free trial, but users thought that by entering their credit card details at the start of the trial, this means they would be locked into the membership after the free trial had expired.
"We told the site owners that they needed to write something on the web site which was more clear and honest about the relationship between them and the user. As soon as they mentioned that their credit card would be used for security reasons, but they would not be charged after 30 days, more people started to use the site."
Bunker also advises websites to have links to a privacy page, a security page and a page about their return policy. He said that by customers are more likely to carry out transactions over the Internet if there is information outlining that their personal details will be kept confidential; the company accepts the return of any dissatisfactory items and the site has an encryption process for protecting bank details.
"The sooner companies start looking at how to build confidence for their users, the more likely it will be that more users will carry out transactions on their site."
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