What is Trusted Shops? What does the Trusted Shops seal mean?
Over 80% of the population in the EU now shops online. And the products range from furniture, garden accessories, clothing, fitness items, and car accessories to food and beverages. No matter what product is ordered, one thing should always go smoothly and seamlessly: the ordering process (checkout). Once the product is ordered, the waiting time until delivery should be as short as possible. Once it arrives, it is tested, checked to see if everything is in order, and much more.
But what if the delivery doesn’t arrive, is damaged, or, for example, the ordered clothing doesn’t fit?
Often, reputable online retailers offer direct help online. However, many online shops also rely on the service of Trusted Shops. The yellow E, the Trusted Shops seal of approval, offers additional buyer protection and help with questions about online purchases. But what is Trusted Shops? What do you need to pay attention to, and how reputable is the seal?
Unfortunately, there are black sheep and dubious online retailers everywhere. A little mistrust is normal, but what really helps and what protection is there for you as a buyer against this?
The most common problems with online purchases and what happens:
- Goods not deliverable even though they could be ordered, or no delivery at all
- Deliveries only after several weeks
- No communication possibility with the online retailer
- Returns only associated with high costs
- No refund of the purchase amount after return
How can Trusted Shops protect you from this?
All online shops with the Trusted Shops seal have undergone manual certification. A Trusted Shops employee has therefore manually checked the online shop, carried out orders, and tested the process. Only then does the shop receive the rating seal! Your order is automatically fully secured up to a purchase value of €100. Furthermore, for only €9.90 per year, you can use Trusted Shops Buyer Protection Plus and are secured up to €20,000 per purchase. Further information on buyer protection
What is Trusted Shops and how does it help me?
Trusted Shops is a review platform that provides online retailers with a seal with star ratings. For this, the retailer pays a monthly fee. Every online shop is therefore extensively checked and certified manually by a Trusted Shops employee. This check is very comprehensive and simulates not only legal conditions but also the normal buyer and tests all purchase options.
Since 2017, Trusted Shops has offered this simple rating option for brick-and-mortar stores without their own online shop with Local Reviews – further information here in PDF.
The Trusted Shops certification thus reliably protects against fraudsters and dubious providers. In addition, the buyer receives buyer protection free of charge up to €100.
In addition, the Cologne-based company also employs its own lawyers and offers legal advice. More than 30 people also offer support for buyers and sellers by phone or email.
Further functions for the online retailer include a legal text generator, GDPR help, automatic review collection, product reviews, and much more.
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Is the seal trustworthy and can one rely on it?
Yes, because by means of certification and buyer protection, even a purchase by prepayment is fundamentally secured up to €100. For only €9.90 per year, every order up to €20,000 is secured. Loss of money, no refund or even no delivery and no help are thus excluded. If there are problems, Trusted Shops helps quickly and easily. Contacting the merchant is then no longer necessary, as Trusted Shops employees take care of everything.
Quote from TS website:
Our seal of approval always stands for 100% trust and, in conjunction with buyer protection, always for security.
Conclusion: Pay attention to the seal when shopping online.
Is the seal not useless for the online retailer (is Trusted Shops useful)?
As written above, it creates trust and greatly simplifies the collection of reviews for the online shop. Trusted Shops is useful for online retailers as well as for the end customer in terms of buyer protection. Many articles on the internet are primarily about the fact that the fees for the shop operator are not worthwhile, as sales do not increase accordingly. We cannot confirm this, as more and more fake reviews and corresponding fraudsters are on the internet, and certification virtually excludes this.
Trusted Shops stands for trust, seriousness and security when shopping online.
If you have any questions, the friendly support staff are always available at 0221/77 53 66.
Can the seal of approval be faked?
Yes and no. Some online shops go ahead and embed the round yellow seal in the upper area of the page, even though the shop is not certified. A quick glance is therefore not enough in that case.
If the Trusted Badge appears at the bottom right, i.e. a white and yellow box appearing in portrait format with stars, you can click on it and view further details. If this is not possible, it is probably a fake. To be on the safe side, Trusted Shops has also published a fake seal list (seal misuse).
Every shop can also be checked here in just a few seconds: www.trustedshops.de/shops/
Can Trusted Shops reviews be manipulated?
As mentioned in the video above, Trusted Shops is a closed review system for online shops. This means that only those who have actually ordered from the shop can leave a review. This applies to both shop reviews and product reviews. Most certified online shops send every customer an email a few days after their purchase with a link through which the customer can review the shop and, if applicable, the purchased products.
To fake a review, i.e., to write a fake review, a fake order would have to be placed. This effort thus represents a hurdle and also distinguishes Trusted Shops from most other review seals and review providers. Faking or manipulating a review is therefore not entirely impossible, but rather unlikely due to the effort involved.
If you are still unsure, you can also refer to external reviews, such as the reviews and ratings on Google, Facebook, Yelp, wlw (wer liefert was), EHI, Shopvote, Proven Expert, and general information sites like gute-frage.net.
The following rules can help you identify a disreputable online shop:
- Check the imprint and Google the company name provided
Example: Max Mustermann GmbH experience, test, reputable - If the ratings are above 4.9 out of 5 stars, start reading and randomly check individual reviews for plausibility and length of the review (not just: everything great, everything top fast delivery etc.). Exclusively good reviews often indicate fakes.
- If reviews are often written in the same way, consist of only a few words, or contain typos, it may be that the reviews were cheaply bought and are therefore fake.
- If a formulation is very detailed or not suitable for the shop, copy one or more sentences and Google them to see if they appear elsewhere.
- Check several review platforms and read comments on Facebook or Instagram about the online retailer.
- Specifically look for negative reviews and read what exactly was supposed to be negative.
Do you sell yourself? Trusted Shops for online shop operators and online retailers:
If you have your own online shop and do not yet use Trusted Shops, we advise you to catch up quickly. As a small start-up aid, you will receive a Trusted Shops voucher from us, with which you can save almost EUR 200.
We consider Trusted Shops to be useful and recommend it for B2C & B2B shops alike!
We are also happy to support you with the planning, implementation and optimization of your (existing) online shop.
Schedule a non-binding consultation appointment now:
E-Mail: fi@vastcob.com
Florian Ibe
Tip: It is generally important to use tracking and to see how and when visitors leave the online shop. Google Analytics funnel visualization, for example, helps with this. This is well and simply explained in the following video:
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