One of prime motivating factors in purchase decision making process is “trust”. A consumer will at some point for however long or short of a time, ask question, “Can I trust this company/person/product?”

In today’s ever-changing world of marketing, electronic media, email, and advertising innovations and intrusions, companies, and businesses are marketing to an ever increasingly suspicious consumer, who is conflicted between their desire not to be “sold” to and their desire to consume. They are looking for ways to establish believability, credibility, and trust.

According to a paper by Peppers and Rogers Group (2004), 36% of major U.S. corporations view privacy as an important part of company’s brand image.

It is my belief based on consumer thinking that one way to develop a competitive edge in marketing world is to place greater emphasis on tying privacy policy to brand. This strategy places a direct link between trust and purchase while developing beginnings of long-term relationship.

Those of us who are fortunate enough to be making a living writing and selling software have luxury of riding on very crest of wave of good fortune. The whole Try Before You Buy concept allows us to send our software across whole world quite literally in minutes, and users from almost every part of globe can download, try and hopefully buy our products. If our business deals exclusively with downloads and avoids working with physical media, then we have nothing to worry about with getting our products from A to B, and no packaging, shipping, customs or tax issues to keep us awake at night.

But reality is somewhat different, and vast majority of websites selling products or services online are doing so almost exclusively with US market in mind. If you truly want to sell your products to rest of world, chances are that you'll need to make some changes.

Change way you think!

The very first step is most important, and requires a change in attitude. The world extends beyond US borders, and to assume that rest of world follows same norms as US is wrong. A potential buyer may not speak English as their main language, may have no access to US Dollars, and may not have, use or want to use a credit card.

Assuming you'd still like to sell your products to a buyer like this, you have to consider practicalities. Setting up a link to an online currency converter is child's play, and there's no shortage of options to choose from. Doing so not only reassures buyer that you take international considerations into account, but also makes buying process easier for them. And making it easy sells.

Make sure that you provide this information before actual order page. Many people's first question when a product catches their eye will be how much it costs, and they shouldn't have to go searching for it. Again, make it easy.

The same principle should also be applied within software itself. If your application deals with different currencies for example, then you shouldn't assume that user will automatically want US Dollar as their base currency, or even that they will want to use Dollar at all. And I'm assuming that you have already included Euro, haven't you? Many users will be unfamiliar with concept of sales tax, and other countries have different names, such as VAT in UK, and GST in Australia.

Regional variations in numerical formats are also important - most countries outside US don't use MM/DD/YYYY format, and many will use a comma for a decimal symbol, and a period for digit grouping symbol.

If your icons and interface are non-standard, then make sure they're clear to all users. There's a reason for sticking with standards and familiar icons, and that's fact that they have become instantly recognisable to most users, all over world. If you're going to use something a little more original, make sure that other people will understand symbols and images that you use. Having a US stop sign might not mean as much to someone who's never actually seen one before.

What about your web forms?