“Trust” is a big — and important — word in the world of ecommerce and Shopify themes. So important, in fact, that there’s a word for any type of logo, icon or symbol that helps reinforce that concept, the aptly named “trustmark.”
In a general sense, a trustmark can be any visual cue that helps build trust with shoppers — and hopefully turn browsers into buyers.
Often trustmarks blur the line between marketing too, such as ones that emphasize free shipping or other special offers.
However, since these types of imagery ultimately are designed to help build buyer confidence and interest, they can be categorized under the realm of trustmarks.
While the word “trustmark” is often used more in relation to logos and “seal” designs, it’s worth noting that there are other types of trustmarks that can be added to your Shopify theme — and they are often easier to add.
As we discussed, the “Powered by Shopify” link alone can be a good way to build confidence with online shoppers who might be unfamiliar with your brand since it shows that you’re using a respected and secure ecommerce platform.
In that sense, while not a traditional trustmark, having a “Powered by Shopify” link or text on your page can have a subtle but strong effect.
In addition, Out of the Sandbox’s Turbo premium Shopify theme also features another subtle but powerful trustmark — the option to add a “lock” icon to your “checkout” button.
According to a PayPal study, adding just this icon can increase conversion rates up to 17% — impressive potential for something that takes up about 50 square pixels of screen space.
Other easy to implement trustmarks include Shopify’s built-in payment icons, which supports both major credit card brands and accelerated checkouts such as Shopify Pay and Apple Pay.
Similarly, the latest version of your Shopify theme should be compatible (all Out of the Sandbox themes are) with dynamic checkout buttons, which are another form of trustmark since these buttons prominently feature well-known branding.
Some Shopify store owners want to customize the look and feel of these buttons.
However, not only is this an advanced customization, but tinkering with these too much will lose the familiar colors and logos that these buttons feature by default — and therefore could make them less recognizable.
This ultimately could make them less effective as trustmarks since users won’t be able to spot, for example, that familiar yellow-orange Amazon Pay button.
Stretching the definition of trustmarks to include text statements can also be quite effective, whether you use the promo banner included in most Shopify themes, content areas on mega menus or sections to display text and imagery.
Although these options give you the flexibility to take advantage of these nontraditional trustmarks from within your Shopify theme — typically without customization, many store owners like to implement other trustmarks.
Often these take the form of icons, “badges” or “seals” that emphasize:
Because of the wide scope of trustmarks that store owners want to implement, most Shopify themes don’t include built-in features to add these through the theme settings — instead they will typically require customizations.
Often creating these types of trustmarks requires creating a custom image or icon.
For standard trustmarks, it’s often easy to find quality stock imagery at reasonable prices if you can’t design your own.
If you need a less common trustmark, however, you may need to hire a designer to create one for you.
In general, adding a trustmark to your page typically requires uploading the image to Shopify and then modifying HTML and CSS code to output the images where you want them — whether it’s on your cart page, product pages, footer or elsewhere.
If you don’t know enough HTML or CSS to do this, it’s generally a pretty simple task that can be done affordably by most Shopify customization services.
In addition, it’s very easy to use your Shopify theme’s sections feature to easily add existing trustmark imagery to your homepage, product detail pages or content pages.
Logo lists are typically well suited to display trustmarks — and you can also use other sections to create ones that are more dynamic.
It’s also worth noting that, as announced at Shopify Unite 2019, sections will soon be available on every page — which will likely make adding trustmarks easier.
When creating and adding custom trustmarks, there are some important factors to consider:
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