What is a trust badge?
A trust badge is a small icon that tells shoppers your store is safe to buy from. It can show the payment methods you take, a secure checkout, a returns or money-back promise, or a third-party seal. It sits by Add to cart, in the cart or in the footer.
What are the types of trust badges?
Shopify's guide to trust badges sorts them into five types.
| Type | Example | Who backs it |
|---|---|---|
| Payment icons | Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Shop Pay logos | The payment methods you take |
| Security | A padlock or "Secure checkout" | Your checkout's handling of card details |
| Policy | Free returns, a money-back guarantee, free shipping | Only you |
| Third-party seal | BBB Accredited, B Corp, a review site's star rating | The body that awarded it |
| Media mention | "As seen in" press logos | The coverage you got |
Which trust badges should you leave off?
Leave off any badge its backer doesn't stand behind. The BBB licenses its seal only to members of its programs and acts on unauthorized use. A policy badge must match your own rules. Shopify's Shop Promise badge, for US stores, shows "Free returns" only when your return rules offer free return shipping and no restocking fee. With a $6 restocking fee on a $60 jacket, that jacket's badge reads "Returns accepted".
Where should trust badges go?
Put each badge where its question comes up. Returns and shipping promises go by Add to cart. Payment and security marks go in the cart, before checkout asks for a card. In Baymard's 2025 survey, 19% of US shoppers who left a checkout for a reason other than just browsing didn't trust the site with their card. Store-wide seals suit the footer. Shopify advises two to four badges in all.
How do you add trust badges on Shopify?
Your theme may already show payment icons: Dawn's footer does unless you switch them off. The Horizon theme can show them too, through a block you add to the footer. At checkout, apps that add content to the information, shipping and payment pages need Shopify Plus, as Shopify's help notes.
What is a guaranteed safe checkout badge?
A guaranteed safe checkout badge is a seal, often a padlock over card logos, that says your checkout keeps card details safe. No single body issues one. Shopify says all its stores are PCI compliant by default, meaning they meet the card industry's security standard. The badge itself proves nothing: Baymard found that a homemade seal reassured shoppers more than all but one of the security seals it tested from established vendors.
Trust badges in your cart, with Sledge
Sledge awards no seals and puts no badge inside Shopify's checkout. Its cart drawer has a "Trust badges" block near the checkout button: each badge is a short line, like "Free returns", with an icon you pick or upload. Sledge Reviews adds a trust badge with your star rating. From the Pro plan up, Growth Intelligence sums the sales its suggested fixes could bring into a single total in your store's currency, which the admin labels "Est. potential".
