Introducing Testing Trust, a new blog series where website security trustmarks are put to the test in real-world experiments conducted by top marketing agencies. We hope the results of these tests will help ecommerce websites discover new ways to optimize visitor trust.

When the team at CarCovers.com approached us for a website security solution that would increase sales, we knew our recently rolled out system of trustmarks, TrustedSite certification, could be a great fit.

To help give CarCovers.com confidence in our new product, we sought a neutral third-party to conduct an A/B test comparing the effectiveness of TrustedSite certification against Norton Shopping Guarantee.

Inflow, an award-winning ecommerce marketing agency and Google certified partner that has conducted more than 6,000 A/B tests for leading brands, was up to the task.

During the testing period, visitors to CarCovers.com saw either the TrustedSite trustmarks or the Norton Shopping Guarantee at key conversion areas throughout the purchase funnel.

Here’s a look at which TrustedSite trustmarks were selected for the test, and the strategy behind each placement.

Security across every page.

We placed a floating trustmark on the bottom left side of every page on the CarCovers.com website. This ensured that every single visitor could verify the site’s security from their very first visit, no matter what page that happened to be. Establishing trust right off the bat helps to alleviate common concerns about fraud and phishing.

Reassurance before checkout.

A Secure Checkout banner was placed in the website footer above the credit card logos to remind customers that they're covered in case their identity is compromised—the #1 fear of shoppers online. Customers can learn more about the $100k identity protection insurance offered through TrustedSite by clicking this banner.

The Secure Checkout banner was also placed on the shopping cart summary page to ease customer security concerns before beginning a transaction.

Protecting payment information.

Checkout is one of the most crucial moments to demonstrate security, which is why two trustmarks were used near the payment information fields. The Secure Checkout trustmarks, along with additional text explaining their significance, reassure visitors that their credit card information is safe. These measures help to prevent shopping cart abandonment and significantly increase sales.

The Results

• Conversion Increase

  +2.6%

  All Devices

• Bounce Rate

  -3.5%

  Desktop

• Time on Site

  +8%

  Desktop

Throughout their years of testing, Inflow has noticed that no longer are “concerns around site security alone, but [have] now moved into ecommerce performance, scam avoidance, business practices, shipping fulfillment, and protection of customer data.” TrustedSite addresses these concerns comprehensively, helping explain why it outperformed Norton in this case.

The CarCovers.com team was happy with the outcome of the test and as a result, fully implemented the TrustedSite system of trustmarks, while also removing the Norton Shopping Guarantee seal.

“[We are] very pleased with TrustedSite, they assisted with implementation and helped us garner a better conversion rate increase vs. their top (more expensive) competitor. So not only are we saving money, we beat the conversion rate increase and improved overall trust factor on the site!"

Jonathan Volk, CEO of CarCovers

To see the trustmarks in action, visit CarCovers.com. To see results from similar A/B tests, see our list of customers here.