May 21, 2024, 4:17 pm | Read time: 5 minutes
Especially in the online world, shopping is a matter of trust. One question always lingers during online shopping: Is the provider with the cheap offer a fake shop or a legitimate platform? Fortunately, numerous quality seals now provide a certain level of trust and security. Among the most well-known quality seals for online retailers is Trusted Shops. According to its own statement, the Cologne-based company offers a Community of Trust–a community of retailers and consumers. In this article, we want to explain what Trusted Shops is all about and how the company rates online shops as trustworthy.
Overview
Almost 25 Years in the Market
“Our Community of Trust is like Amazon, but with clearly defined security mechanisms,” explains Mustafa Uçar, spokesperson at Trusted Shops. The company officially started its business in 2000 and will celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2025.
During the founding phase of Trusted Shops, the internet and e-commerce were still in their infancy. The then-managers quickly recognized the importance of security in online shopping.
The company’s core market is Germany, although the quality seal can now be found across Europe. “In Germany, consumers pay much closer attention to security when shopping online than in other countries,” says Mustafa Uçar.
Quality Seal After Intensive Review
For Trusted Shops, it was clear from the start: To signal trust and security externally, a visible sign, a quality seal, is needed. However, it is often not clear to consumers on what basis such an award is given. Trusted Shops has therefore defined clear guidelines for when an online shop receives a quality seal from the company.
- Verified Identity: A retailer’s creditworthiness is monitored initially and then regularly.
- Active Buyer Protection: Every purchase in an online shop with the Trusted Shops quality seal is financially secured.
- Consumer-Friendly Shopping Experience: The company conducts test purchases with retailers, focusing on specific criteria. These include secure, fully encrypted data transmission, a clear cancellation process and reasonable cancellation conditions, as well as a clearly visible identity of the retailer and contact options. The sale of weapons or illegal gambling are exclusion criteria for Trusted Shops. The company also ensures a transparent ordering process, including order confirmation by email immediately after purchase.
Also read: Consumer Center warns of fake online shops
Growing Acceptance
“We are like the AAA of online shopping,” emphasizes Uçar. With this statement, the spokesperson refers to the broad acceptance of the Trusted Shops quality seal. “More than 30,000 companies across Europe now carry our quality seal. At the same time, nearly 40 million consumers use our standard version.”
Trusted Shops generally works for customers free of charge. Up to a purchase value of 100 euros, customers benefit from active buyer protection. This means that in case of complaints, Trusted Shops refunds the purchase amount free of charge.
“Our premium offers with increased buyer protection up to a value of 20,000 euros are used by at least one million consumers,” says Uçar. The premium version costs 9.99 euros per year.
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Consumers Support Trustworthiness
Consumers play an important role in the trustworthiness of an online shop–keyword: Community of Trust. In addition to the guidelines already mentioned by Trusted Shops, three more quality indicators are added. The fulfillment of these indicators heavily depends on consumers.
Every online shop must regularly meet the following conditions within 30 days, or the quality seal is revoked:
- Average of 4.0 Stars in Trusted Shops Reviews: All reviews are transaction-based. This minimizes fake reviews or makes them immediately noticeable.
- Fast Service Communication: The online shop must respond to at least 95 percent of buyer protection requests within five days through the Trusted Shops system.
- Low Buyer Protection Refund Rate: At least 95 percent of all orders must proceed without a request for a refund.
Online retailers can apply for membership with Trusted Shops. The monthly fee starts at 119 euros. Individual offers are also available upon request. In return, Trusted Shops provides various marketing tools to online retailers.
However, membership has nothing to do with the awarding of the quality seal. The award is not for sale but is only given according to the listed guidelines and indicators.
Collaboration with Consumer Associations
Trusted Shops now enjoys a great deal of trust, both among retailers and consumers. The Cologne-based company is a member of the D21 initiative. This was launched in close collaboration with the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs. Together with consumer associations, the members have developed valid quality criteria.
In addition to Trusted Shops, D21 includes the Federation of German Consumer Organizations, the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection, the data protection cert GmbH, and the German Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media, Bitkom. Customers awarded a Trusted Shops quality seal include not only big names like Obi, Renault, or VW but also small and medium-sized online shops. “It’s the mix that counts. Lesser-known online retailers benefit from the top brands. In this way, our quality seal can help make one’s online shop more well-known,” spokesperson Uçar points out the advantages of a quality seal in e-commerce.