What does Trusted Shops mean?
Trusted Shop is a company which was founded in Cologne in 1999. It offers operators of online shops various services as well as a certification for their website.
Like the name implies trust is exactly what the seal is intended to convey to customers. This seal offers small and medium-sized providers in particular the chance to keep up with large, well-known shops in terms of reliability. The seal stands for security in online trading. Europe-wide (besides Germany e.g. Belgium, France, Poland, Italy, Great Britain) approx. 25,000 shops of different categories and types are certified with this seal.
What is the advantage of Trusted Shops for trader?
With Trusted Shops, sellers who operate an online shop can also take advantage of legal advice as well as search engine integration and optimization. Online providers can choose between three categories (Start, Pro and Premium), depending on their needs.
Before an online shop receives the “e” award, it is checked for certain criteria such as data protection and security, costs and prices, payment, delivery, customer service, etc. The e-shop can also be used for customer reviews. In addition, customers can also submit customer reviews with this portal, which should facilitate the purchase decision for other potential customers, similar to the rating method on Amazon. Here, too, customers can give a star rating and feedback. However, points (stars) are awarded in three categories (delivery, goods and customer service).
Companies that have been awarded the seal can be recognized immediately by the eTrusted logo, as in the following example from Planet Sports:
What is buyer protection?
Buyers can also register for Trusted Shops and thus receive buyer protection at online shops with this seal. This protection applies, for example, if products are not delivered or not refunded, regardless of the method of payment. The customer can differentiate between two memberships:
Trusted Shop Basic: here purchases up to 100 Euro per order are protected. This service is free of charge.
Trusted Shop plus: here purchases are secured to 20.000 euro per order. For this service buyers pay at present 9.90 euro per year.