Last year we were saying that online retail is here to stay. Now, COVID has made that almost self-evident.
Online shoppers in the US spent $34.36 billion over the Black Friday to Cyber Monday holiday weekend, continuing a string of record-breaking years. This year’s sales represent a 20.6% year-over-year increase, which was slower than some analysts anticipated, considering COVID restrictions on in-person shopping, but was still bigger than last year’s 17.7% year-over-year increase.
Online customers are stressed this year. Trust is more important than ever. And that means, on the retailers end, fostering a sense of trust and goodwill are at the apex of your priorities. This can take a variety of forms, from the general to the specific. But it starts with a foundation of trust and authenticity. And we now have a metric for that.
Researchers Find Four Key Components To Customer Trust In Online Retail
Last month researchers from the University of Murcia in Spain published what they’re calling the first ever formal attempt to “measure consumers’ perceptions regarding the ethics of online retailers.” The study presents four key components of consumer trust: security, privacy, non-deception, and fulfillment/reliability.
The report finds that “consumers’ ethical evaluations and expectations are particularly relevant on the Internet, and they are formed in a different way on the Internet, as compared to traditional retail settings.” This is due in part to the lack of person-to-person interaction, which generates a sense of warmth and humanity noticeably absent in online retail compared to brick-and-mortar shopping. You can’t sweet talk the customer service representative the same way if you need to make a return, for example.
Fostering authenticity and trustworthiness is foundational to long term online retail success, and is unique to online marketplaces. But others say consumer trust is just the beginning. Calls for ethical online shopping have been gaining momentum this year. In order to win dollar votes, it’s important to prove that you’re making some positive impact on the world at large.
Include The Customer In The Good You’re Doing
“It’s no longer enough just to say you’re making an impact,” says Carter Forbes, co-founder and co-CEO of Wildlife Collections. “Customers want to participate in the good that you’re doing.”
He says customer participation has been key to the growth the company has seen in the last two years, which has resulted in increased donations made to wildlife conservation. Wildlife Collections uses an adopt-an-animal model, where customers who buy retail goods also get information about a specific animal. They can then check in on their adopted animal through an online tracking system to see where it is in the world.
“It engages people in a meaningful way,” says Daniel Gunter, Carter’s co-CEO. “It’s a treat for the customer, it’s great for our company as a differentiator, and it’s better for the animals because the end result is more money going to the wildlife foundations we partner with.” This is a hyper-specific way to include customers in your mission, instead of just declaring it in your origin story.
Make The Whole Supply Chain A Good-Doing Machine
David Bolotsky was an early adopter who saw the need for an online marketplace as early as the dial-up days. Bolotsky, a former research analyst who oversaw the retail research team at Goldman Sachs, founded Uncommon Goods in 1999, and has fostered stable company growth along with the growth of the internet.
“I visited the Smithsonian Craft Show in Washington DC in 1999,” Bolotsky recalls. “It was packed with shoppers and when I asked them why they were there, many talked about looking for products that spoke to their individuality, as opposed to mass-produced items they would find in the mall. In talking to artists, I saw how the Internet could provide a more efficient venue to showcase their work 24/7, instead of just one weekend in April in a single location.”
The burst of the dot-com bubble a couple years later presented some hardships, and the company shrank. But as it recovered and grew into an online retail institution, Bolotsky says one of his takeaways was the importance of doing right by your team, your customers, and everyone in your supply chain.
Uncommon Goods doesn’t only deal in sustainable goods, but their broader ethic of doing good is evident in their catalogue, including holiday specials like this one spotlighting Black artisans and entrepreneurs. “Perhaps the biggest insight is the positive impact we can have on people’s lives – our team members, our customers and our suppliers – when we do things well,” says Bolotsky. “We are constantly working to improve our impact on the lives of our workers, suppliers and customers, as well as minimizing our environmental footprint.”
Fostering trust through security, privacy, honesty and reliability lays the foundation for customer goodwill. Take it a step further with a mission to make positive change in the world. This can take general forms, like the ethical supply chain structure of Uncommon Goods, or specific ones, like a purchase helping a single sea turtle. Customers crave transparency and inclusion and are happy to support causes and businesses that improve the world.
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January 30, 2021 at 07:22AM
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‘Doing Good’ In Online Retail Can Take Many Different Forms - Forbes
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