Don't fake anything. Video converts. Generic badges don't. The four types of reviews ranked by impact, where to place UGC, and the niche-specific signals that actually address hesitation.
Do not fake anything. Not reviews. Not scarcity. Not social proof numbers. Fake trust is worse than no trust.
Video. Not influencer content. Customer content. Real people, real results, real language.
Make them conditional. A UGC element that appears everywhere unconditionally becomes noise. Triggered at the right moment, it converts.
The generic trust icons, "Trusted by 10,000 customers," "Secure checkout," gold shield badges, rarely create measurable lift. They add visual clutter and signal that you're trying to manufacture credibility rather than demonstrate it.
| Category | Trust signals that actually work |
|---|---|
| Supplements | HSA/FSA eligibility, certifications, licenses, real doctor endorsements with credentials |
| Fashion | A sizing confidence widget showing what customers say about fit (runs small, true to size, runs large). Removes the single biggest hesitation in apparel. |
| High-ticket / Medical | Financing options visible on the product page signal that the purchase is manageable |
The more you educate a customer about why a product is right for them, the use case, the benefit, what it feels like, what it does, the more they trust it. Education is trust. A well-placed UGC video of a real customer explaining why they love the product does more than any badge or icon ever will.
Less is more. A product page with two genuine video reviews outperforms one with twelve manufactured trust signals every time.
A checklist shows you what to look for. It cannot tell you which leak is bleeding the most revenue on your store, or in what order to fix. The Store Autopsy ranks the 20 to 70 leaks actually costing you money, top 3 surfaced, delivered in about 2 weeks. $800, credited in full toward the fix. Proof, not opinions.
Get the Store Autopsy → See the full audit