You have to admit it – Trust is one of the essential elements that complete a sale. And if you’re selling online, your website or eCommerce store needs to build trust when the consumers visit it. Trust Seals play a vital role in establishing that trust.

As per our study – How do trust logos influence purchase decisions, trust seals/logos play a vital role in building consumer trust for a website and also influence consumer purchase decisions. The study states that – “Consumers are likely to abandon a website if they don’t see or recognize the trust seals on the website.”

But looking at the positive side, this means that adding a trust seal to a website can be a great strategy to not only drive consumer trust but also increase sales and conversions.

Now, let’s discuss some stats and facts about trust seals based on our and some other research in the industry.

The Power of Trust Seals

A survey conducted by Econsultancy/Toluna asked consumers the factors that influence their trust when shopping from an online retailer they don’t know very well.

There were a lot of different elements that played a role in building trust, but the most important factor was having trust seals displayed on the website. A significant proportion – 48% of respondents said that trust logos reassure them that the site is secure and trustworthy.

To know more about trust logos, the Helplama team surveyed a large number of consumers throughout the US, and the findings are remarkable.

• 76% of consumers said that trust logos affect their sense of trust for a specific website.
• 55% of the consumers reported that they abandoned a purchase online due to missing trust logos.
• 58% of consumers reported quitting a purchase online as they were not able to recognize the trust logos.
• 78% of consumers said that they pay attention to the trust logos in the URL address bar while shopping online.

So now we know that trust seals affect consumers’ sense of trust for a website and can also influence their purchasing decisions, and are definitely important to include on a website. But which trust seal do they trust the most?

The Trust Seal Consumers Trust The Most

As per a survey conducted by a web research institute – Beymard, consumers’ trust ‘Norton powered by VeriSign’ trust seal the most. Have a look at the responses below:

Norton was shown to be the seal that gave customers the best sense of trust when purchasing online with about 36% of the votes. McAfee was chosen by 23% of respondents, making it the second most trusted seal. The TRUSTe and BBB Accredited seals are at a tie for third and fourth place, both with 13%. Thawte comes in fifth (making it the second-best SSL seal). Finally, Trustwave, GeoTrust, and Comodo share 6th, 7th, and 8th place at 3%.

But there’s one con in the above research if you noticed, they didn’t include PayPal in the survey which is also a renowned company in the industry.

When the Helplama team surveyed a large number of US-based consumers and asked them to choose the single trust logo out of 20 logos (including PayPal) that gives them the best sense of trust, the majority of consumers (32%) chose PayPal, making it the most trusted seal.

After PayPal, McAfee gave the best sense of trust to 15% of consumers, Verisign and BBB logo gave the best sense of trust to 11% and 13% of consumers respectively.

Only the above 4 logos gave the best sense of trust to a significant proportion of online shoppers, while the remaining 16 trust logos were chosen by merely 1-4% of consumers each.

So if you have got an idea of the trust seal that you should go for, let’s look at another relevant case study, in which VeriSign lifted conversions.

Displaying VeriSign Trust Seal Resulted in a 42% Increase in Conversions

A split test was conducted by Blue Fountain Media to see how displaying VeriSign Trust Seal would influence consumers’ sense of trust for a website and affect conversions.

Below was the original page that didn’t display a verified trust seal:

The same page with VeriSign trust seal added on it:

The only difference between the two pages:

Making no other changes and by just adding the VeriSign trust seal, the conversions lifted up by 42%.

Based on the above finding, displaying the trust seal boosted trust among visitors and gave them the confidence to submit their personal information without feeling unsecured.

Bottom Line

Trust seals seem important to build consumer trust for a website, as important as providing great customer service to customers.

If you’re not displaying a trust seal on your site, you might be missing out on a significant amount of sales and conversions as well.

At the same time, it’s also important to note that recognition is more important than mere presence. In simple words, you should collaborate with a renowned security provider that consumers recognize and trust.

So, website owners should definitely go for displaying trust seals on their websites, to win consumers’ trust and boost conversions.

Recommended read: Impact Of Trust Logos On Consumer Purchase Decisions