Often times if you are in any industry that sells anything on the web, you will have been in the situation where you have wondered what could be added to your website and to your forms, to help make it convert better. A common theme that companies commonly practice is finding ways to make their website more trustworthy. Usually the first step of this process is to get SSL validation for all their forms that collect personal information. Adding this security allows the users of the website to have a little more reassurance that their information is safe on the website and that no one can hack in and steal it. Generally when you get an SSL certificate, depending on who you register such as GeoTrust, RapidSSL, Verisign, or others they will provide you with a trust seal that you can place on your website that says to the customer “Hey we are secure” and this company says we are, and if you trust this company, such as Verisign, then you should feel comfortable knowing they are vouching for your company.
But SSL server certificates are not the only types of trust logos you can get from companies such as these. They also offer trust logos for other types of approvals, such as business approval, meaning they will verify your contact information and make sure you are a valid company and then they will place an icon on your website signifying they have done this check. They can also do hacking checks and PCI compliance checks and place trust logos on your website that says if you meet these requirements or not. All these trust seals or logos just help show your customers of your website that you meet these specific requirements.
However the big question is, do these logos or seals really help customers feel safer and secure on your website? Will a customer feel more comfortable on your website because of these seals or will they buy from a competitor. Well simply put, if they are planning to buy from your website, the seals will just increase the likelihood that they will complete the transaction. There could be other factors that may drive away the customer, such as a confusing checkout form, but if there intent is to buy from you, the seals will decrease the likelihood that they will stop filling out your form.
So really you need to determine if the costs of purchasing these seals is worth the cost, and maybe it would be better to spend time finding other ways to increase your online shopping carts conversion numbers and this should probably be your last step. If your form just sucks, the seals will not help you increase conversions all but marginally. Whereas if you have a high converting form already, adding the seals could help increase the conversion rates by a couple of percent.