Hacker Safe and trustE

Do they increase customer confidence and conversion rates?

[tolachi]

I know this topic has reared its ugly head before around here, but nobody seemed to have an opinion to express beyond their distaste for the concept. I'm wondering if anybody here has had real experience with using either of these logos on their site and what it was in terms of increased or decreased sales.

I hate the idea of hacker safe and trustE. But, given the premise that your average person is to lazy to fully read a privacy policy and doesn't know how to test your server's security, these seem the closest things to peace of mind that they will get.

Let's talke about this in terms of increasing customer confidence and conversion rates.

[nipear]

yes they work. How much they work depends on a lot of other factors, but I've seen over a 10% increase on sites I've managed. It all comes down to trust.

[Raymond]

I think by just mentioning the word "Hacker", regardless of what the whole phrase is, you will turn away alot of customers.

All online shoppers already EXPECT the purchase to be hacker-safe. No body would even visit your website if they think it is NOT hacker-safe. Mentioning it adds no particular value, but it reminds them to consider again the security involved in the purchase.

[tolachi]

yes they work. How much they work depends on a lot of other factors, but I've seen over a 10% increase on sites I've managed. It all comes down to trust.

nipear, if you don't mind me asking, is your experience with a combination of hackersafe and truste or just one? Did you use other trust logos too? What kind of sites were these on (average ticket item, general sector etc...)? I'd love to know as much as you are comfortable telling.

Mentioning it adds no particular value

Raymond, I understand the adverse reaction to hacker safe. But, do you have any hard evidence to back up your assertion or is just your personal opinion?

Food for thought:

Brian Eisenberg, writer of the grok.com newsletter, suggests using using third party reinforcement messages to increase conversions and mentions hacker safe specifically. He seems to think they can't hurt, especially help large ticket item sites.

What do you think? Has anybody had adding the hacker safe or trustE logo actually hurt conversions?

[nipear]

My experience has been with Hacker Safe, and it was with a couple sites and the average ticket was large $200 - $300. And a third site with average $40 ticket.

I had data about our A/B trials with it, but it was with my former company and I don't have it anymore. But, for us, we did see a definite improvement.

Anyway it's all about trust. If you're amazon, it might hurt sales, but if you're some small site that a visitor has never heard of before hitting your site, I think it helps with the trust issue and them thinking they are going to get their products quickly and not get ripped off.

[bears5122]

Added one about 6 months ago and have seen a 0.2% increase in conversions. Well worth it for me.

[outland88]

Yes I have been using Hacker Safe a while. I have actually seen no noticeable increase in traffic from it, maybe a decrease. I have to agree with Raymond's comments.

[tolachi]

nipear, Thanks for elaborating.

bears5122, Wow. A .2% increase is pretty significant. I assume you mean that total conversions rose by .2%?

outland88, Would you be willing to describe the site that you had experience with? Just some general descriptors. Ticket item, apparel, electronics, downloads, etc...

I would guess that the shopping cart page would be THE page to put the hacker safe logo on. I am averse to plastering it on every page of my site, but does anybody have the experience that this necessary? Any experience/thoughts here?

TIA

[outland88]

I have commerce sites. I don't see using Hacker Safe on much outside of that. The original Hacker Safe wording when you click on the emblems said it really was only for Visa and MC. I forget could be one or both. I don't believe it protects Discover, AE, or they just perform a general set of tests for them. I complained to them about the wording and they changed it 24 hours later.