According to KPMG research, 51% of customers will trust your business more if they can easily contact you. This cannot be emphasised enough.

1. If you have a floating Live Chat button in the bottom of the page, then a simple “Help” menu item in the header is enough.
2. If you don’t have that floating button, then you could add “Live Chat” or “Chat” as another menu item in your secondary header menu (on desktop)
3. Add a phone number if calls are an important channel of communication for your store (for your audience)
4. An email address or email icon isn’t necessary but if you have the space for it in your header, it’d be something for you to test.

Is your audience young?

Live Chat is absolutely essential unless you’re exclusively targeting people born before 1945.

Some data:

• 62% of mobile visitors expect a live chat function and 82% would use it. Note that this data dates back from Oct 2014.
• 42% of shoppers prefer live chat to other customer support options simply because they don’t have to wait.
• Live chat has the highest level of customer satisfaction at 92% compared to other modes like voice (88%), email (84%), and Twitter messaging (77%).

Email

Email address placement in the header is fairly uncommon and definitely unnecessary. A phone number and live chat will do just fine. Only 29% of users would prefer email so you can list your address somewhere in the page footer for those who really need it.

Examples

Adidas

Amazon

ASOS

B&H

Crutchfield - 1

Crutchfield - 2

Home Depot

LL Bean

Sears