How to Build Social Trust with
Social Commerce
Social commerce, in which consumers purchase products and services through social media channels, is a powerful way for brands to connect with customers. However, there are still some concerns about the potential for fraud and abuse. In order to protect your company's reputation and sales, it's important to take measures that will make sure the buyer of your brand's product or service is who they say they are
online.
Offer Payment Options Your Customers Trust
When you're selling a product or service, it's important to offer the payment options your customers trust. When you take the time to build up their trust, they'll know that when they buy from your brand, they can rest assured that their information is secure and safe. This will help promote more sales for
your business.
You can offer your customers a variety of payment options, including credit cards, debit cards and PayPal. When you're selling a product or service online, offering multiple payment options is an easy way to increase sales. The more ways your customers can pay for the products and services they want from you, the more likely they are to become repeat buyers.
Offer Payment Options That Are Familiar to Your Customers.
Many consumers are familiar with credit cards and PayPal, but they may not be as familiar with other payment options. For example, if you're selling a product or service that's only available in your country or region, it might make sense to offer local payment options like wire transfers, check payments and cash on delivery. If a customer wants to pay
for something using one of those methods, they know how much it will cost upfront instead of having to wait for an invoice from your business.
Digital wallets alleviate both customer trust issues (card data is stored in a digital wallet rather than entered by the user) and checkout problems. Digital wallets don't expose users’ account numbers to merchants or social networks—so they are considered highly safe forms of payment. A recent study
found that 71% of online shoppers in five countries sometimes or always pay for purchases with a digital wallet instead of using their credit card, which shows the high level of comfort consumers have when paying with this method.
Monitor Social Media for Brand Impostors
Monitoring social media is a good way to keep an eye on your brand. Fraudsters use social
media to impersonate brands and steal customers' login credentials or payment information. Fraudsters are increasingly targeting social media because more consumers use it to make purchases.
According to a recent report from the Federal Trade Commission, over 40% of reported social-media scams involved ecommerce.Victims were fooled by ads that trick people into visiting lookalike websites.The best social media teams listen to
conversations about their brand. When a customer complains, the team can follow up with that person in order learn what happened and report fraud accounts to platforms so they can be taken down quickly, before they do more harm or adversely affect other customers.
This is more dangerous than just hurting your brand. Brand imposters can quicks reduce direct-to-consumer eCommerce revenue. In many cases, the fake brands get more attention than
the real brand, especially when they offer huge discounts under the guise of a special sale And this of course, Increases the volume of customer service inquiries. The fraudulent sites don’t reply to phone calls or emails, so when the customer’s order never shows up and they start seeing unauthorized charges on their credit card, their inquiries and requests will eventually fall back on the brand.
Provide Amazing
Customer Service, Always.
During the pandemic, customers have become increasingly critical of businesses that fail to deliver excellent service. Forrester found that brands excelled when they responded to evolving customer needs by making digital transformation a priority, offering new shopping options and providing multiple ways for customers to interact with them.
Provide the same level of service across
all channels. Today’s customers want to be able to interact with businesses in the way that works best for them. That means providing consistent service on all channels, including email and social media. The more you can provide options for customers, the better chance you have of keeping them happy.
Keep the customer in the loop at every step. When you’re communicating with customers, be sure to keep them in the know at all times. Let them know
what’s happening, when it will happen and why it’s important to them. Provide updates in real time via social media, email or other channels that customers use regularly.
Prioritize security and privacy
If you want to win trust and loyalty, respect your customers' data privacy. Be transparent about how you use data and what measures you take to protect it. If a customer requests it, provide access to their
information so that they know exactly what’s being collected and how it will be used.
Have a way to log and report any privacy or security breaches. Be transparent about your processes and ensure that they are working properly. If there is a problem, let customers know quickly so they can take action.
Offer a secure venue for purchases. Protecting the safety of customer data is an important part
of building trust and loyalty. Encrypt all credit card transactions, and use a secure server to process payments online.
Make sure that any third parties with access to your customers’ data have strong security measures in place as well. Be aware of the laws and regulations that affect your business. Know how to handle complaints, both from customers and from government agencies. You should also understand the rules around data protection, privacy,
security breaches, and other related topics. Enable two-factor authentication when making payments, and send security codes via email or text message whenever a purchase is made.
Focus on authentic messaging
“Authenticity is important for brands, especially in the age of social media and influencers," said Chloe Cox, social strategy and insight consultant at Wunderman
Thompson Commerce. "You can't fake authenticity; it has to be real." This means being who you are and not trying to be something that you're not. If your brand is quirky or fun, then don't suddenly become serious and boring. If your brand is all about fashion, then don't start selling cookies. Keep in mind that authenticity also applies to your product or service.
A survey conducted last summer found that 88% of respondents consider
authenticity— brands being “genuine” and “real" — an important factor in deciding which ones they support.According to the survey, 72% of respondents said photos and videos from real customers are the content they most want to see on e-commerce sites when making purchasing decisions
A majority of survey respondents (56%) are more influenced by images and videos from social media when shopping online than they were before the
pandemic.
“All generations of shoppers are telling brands they’re more likely to purchase products if they see authentic customer content on websites, and social media is the best place for companies publishing that information.” — Damien Mahoney, CEO and co-founder at Stackla
The survey results suggest that the presence of product-related visual content in online advertising has grown more important
over time.
If you're selling a product, then make sure that it's something you would use yourself. If you are a company that sells handmade soaps and lotions, then don't start selling cheap knockoffs from China. It will be obvious to your audience if you aren't being authentic and people will lose trust in your brand.
Social commerce can build brand trust, but your organization needs to be
prepared.
Social commerce is growing. It's becoming a major part of the ecommerce landscape and is growing faster than overall ecommerce. In fact, social commerce has grown so much that it's now more popular than traditional text-based search queries!
In addition to being rapidly adopted by consumers, social commerce has also become important for businesses looking to drive growth. And as companies continue to
increase their investments in this area, we expect them to continue innovating on their social commerce strategies.
Social commerce is a long-term strategy for building trust. It’s not an overnight fix or a quick fix that will be outdated next week. But if you are willing to make the investment, it can help your brand build trust with customers and grow over time.
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Pesach Lattin
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