How to Overcome Online Buyer Hesitation: 4 Ready-to-Use Strategies

Use these four tricks to shorten the conversion process and persuade customers to purchase from you today.

1. Prove Your Credibility

Before customers turn over their hard-earned cash and sensitive personal data, they want to know they’re giving it to someone they can trust.

Customer reviews are one way for you to earn that trust as a reputable seller: More than 90% of consumers look at online reviews before making a purchase, and 33% will buy only items with at least one positive customer review. You might also consider displaying security seals, adding a robust “About Us” page to convey credibility, and adding a privacy page that describes how you handle and protect customer data.

Other ways to position yourself as a trusted resource and overcome buyer are by:

• Offering comparisons to competitors’ products
• Publishing blog posts on industry trends
• Adding client testimonials, awards and certifications to your website
• Spelling out your refund and exchange policies

2. Create a Sense of Urgency

Sometimes the fear of missing out on a product is enough to nudge customers to make a purchase. Sites like EventBrite count down the time remaining to make a purchase, while eBay encourages competition for items. When inventory gets low, consider displaying the number of items remaining to influence customers, like Zulilly does.

Even using words like “hurry,” “don’t miss” or “last chance” on product pages can overcome a shopper’s reluctance to make a purchase. Conducting simple A/B tests can help you discover which strategies appeal to customers and work best for increasing your conversion rate and decreasing buyer hesitation.

3. Be Honest

Exaggerating about what your product or service can do is no way to win a sale. Savvy consumers will see right through fluffed-up product descriptions and biased product reviews. But being honest doesn’t have to be boring: Clear, descriptive, well-written text can effectively overcome buyer hesitation and convince customers to try new products.

Honesty extends to special offers and in-stock items, too. Don’t make “one-time-only” offers that you plan to repeat, and don’t advertise you have just five items left in stock if you’re anticipating a replenishment order next week.

4. Identify the Deal Breakers

When customers hesitate to make an online purchase, there’s always a reason. So if you can determine what your customers’ objections are, you can be better prepared to counter those objections and provide the information customers need to make a purchase.

Sometimes, a customer’s biggest objection is that they simply don’t have enough information to make a decision. Overcome that by offering a wealth of diverse product information, like photos from multiple angles, user-generated images, videos of the product in use, comprehensive descriptions, and customer service contact information.

Although buyer hesitation is frustrating for e-commerce merchants, it’s an inevitable part of doing business. After all, customers want to know who they’re doing business with and what they’re getting before they spend their money. The good news is that hesitation is easily overcome using these strategies.

As your conversion rates increase, you’ll want to the sales you’re making are contributing to your bottom line and not in costly revenue losses due to fraud and chargebacks. Selecting the right fraud prevention partner isn’t easy, but ClearSale makes it easier, thanks to our new toolkit, the Merchant Guide for e-Commerce Fraud Protection.

Download this toolkit today to help you understand your online fraud risk and the fraud prevention options available to you, so you can make the right choice for your business. And if you have any questions about getting started, contact us. We’ll be with you every step of the way.