I was interviewed for an article on the InfoExecutive web site about the effect of trust marks on ecommerce transactions. The article is commenting on a recent study by McAfee reporting a 10% increase in completed transactions when their trust mark appeared on an ecommerce web site. It is an interesting study because they used an A/B design where half the visitors saw a site with the trust mark while half did not. The interesting questions is whether a 10% increase in completion rates is a good finding or a weak one. Also, would any old trust mark have had the same effect, even one the website made up?
Consumers look for e-commerce ‘trustmarks’ – McAfee
Digital window shoppers wandering through cyberspace may be click-happy, but turning browsers into buyers is just as difficult on the World Wide Web as it is in the bricks and mortar marketplace. And sometimes, the determining factor in making the sale is simple security cue, according to a recent study by McAfee Inc.
The report looked at the behaviour of 163 million online shoppers and found that when a security cue like McAfee’s SECURE trustmark was shown to online consumers, sales conversions were 10.85 per cent higher in that group compared to those who were not exposed.