Though there are many possible reasons for shopping cart abandonment, trust is a major factor in online purchasing decisions. Trust, however, can be difficult to convey to customers—especially with the amount of online fraud online.

Shopping Cart Abandonment

The backbone of e-commerce is conversions, and the endgame for all e-commerce is to get people to the checkout. When a user visits a site, adds an item to their shopping cart, and then proceeds to checkout, their trust is put to the test. Users will not enter financial and personal data into a web form on a site that doesn't display something to tell the user that their information is secure. If this is the first time the user is visiting this website, the trust that the user has for on online retailer stems only from what they see on the page. If the website displays a site seal and secures its connection with an EV SSL Certificate, the trust with the user is established.

In one study, users were asked several questions about website seals, their effect on shopping cart abandonment, and their effect on user trust in a website. According to the study:

• 75% of participants answered “yes” when asked if website seals affect their sense of trust in a website.
• 60% of participants stated they have not completed a purchase because a trust logo was missing.
• 74% of participants answered “yes” when asked if they look for other indicators of a secure website in the URL (HTTPS and green address bar).

From these statistics, it’s clear that online fraud and overall security concerns have driven users to be more wary when making online purchases.

Customer Conversion Experience

One DigiCert customer said the following about their DigiCert site seal:

"This year when our SSL Certificate came up for renewal we noticed the site seal option... We figured, 'what the heck, lets give this thing a try.’ We installed the seal just through our store and checkout pages and tested it for 30 days, or 15,000 pageviews between 5,000 unique visitors. During that time period, we saw a 18% decrease in bounces and a 19% increase in conversions on the pages with the site seal installed."

Gain Trust with Visual Indicators

Website seals can help gain user trust by letting users know that your identity has been validated; and by gaining user trust you are more likely to increase conversions.

DigiCert's site seals give you an easy way to let your customers know that your site is being secured by DigiCert and that their information is safe. Click here for instructions on how to install a DigiCert site seal.