Are you planning to make a purchase on a commercial website? Whatever product you want to order, you probably want it to be delivered to your doorstep. Unfortunately, not all online sales platforms are trustworthy. So how do you go about checking the reliability of a website?
Examine the reputation of the merchant website
To ensure that an online sales platform is reliable, you need to make sure that it has a good reputation. Here's how to go about checking its reputation.
The internet search
If you have any doubts about the reliability of a merchant website, you should immediately check the identity of the managing company. To do this, the DGCCRF or Direction Générale de la Concurrence, de la Consommation et de la Répression des Fraudes recommends that you conduct an internet search. To do so, you must type the name of the company concerned in your search engine while adding the terms: "scam", "fraud" or "reliability". This is a simple and effective trick that will allow you to check if the merchant website is associated with bad practices.
The online reliability tool
In order to deepen your analysis of the reputation of the merchant site, you can resort to reliability assessment tools. On the Internet, there are solutions such as ScamDoc that will allow you to determine the level of trust you can place in a platform on the web. This software is based on several criteria of relevance, including: the age of the domain name, the reliability of the email addresses used on the site, the traffic, the existence of the HTTPS protocol, the ranking on the search engine, ... Thanks to the deep artificial intelligence used by ScamDoc, you will get relevant and reliable results.
Analyze the domain name of the site
Before taking the next steps to ensure the reliability of a merchant website, you need to make sure you choose the right platform. Indeed, scams are plentiful and fake sites are very well designed nowadays. You should therefore not rely on the appearance of a website, as it is easily reproducible like a profile on social networks.
To ensure that you are on the right merchant site, you need to pay attention to the domain name. This is actually the basis of the URL of a platform. For example, at https://www.sneakersworld.fr, the domain name is sneakersworld.com. Other domain names such as snearkersworld.ru, info.sneakersworld.eu or sneakersworld.com may belong to malicious people or other companies. So you should not make the mistake of going to another provider's site thinking that you are on the merchant platform whose reliability you want to investigate.
To ensure the authenticity of the site, you can use software like Who.is. By entering the URL into this software, you will get a lot of information, namely: the owner's name, address, contact information and IP address.
Study the legal notice and privacy policy
The legal notice and the privacy policy are also elements that allow to verify the reliability of a merchant website.
The legal mentions
On each commercial website, several mandatory mentions relating to the owner of the platform, the editor, the address and the company must be displayed. They act as a passport for the website. To guarantee the reliability of your provider, the legal notices are elements that you can think about.
Privacy Policy
The privacy policy of a site must be present in the legal notice. If it is not, you should know that it is mandatory. In fact, it includes all the measures implemented by the site in terms of personal data protection. Normally, a reliable site must have a complete privacy policy that meets the new standards imposed by the RGPD. Do not hesitate to check the presence of this policy in order to be sure of the reliability of the merchant site you have chosen.
Pay attention to the General Sales Conditions or GSC
On all merchant sites, the general terms and conditions of sale or GTCs must necessarily be present. Whether the platform is intended for the sale of tangible or intangible goods, it must make the GTC available to customers. They must also be accessible before the validation of the purchases.
In reality, the GTC represents a contract for the purchases you make. So, you need to read it to get information about several things, such as:
- Delivery terms;
- Product guarantees;
- Ancillary services;
- Refunds;
- Payment terms;
- Spare parts;
- Available products, etc.
The legal principle and technical security
According to the DGCCRF, consent is characterized by a double click. So, when making your payment, you must pay attention to this detail. Indeed, the seller has the obligation to proceed in two steps. Your first click must be intended for the verification of the order, the products, the prices and the acceptance of the legal mentions and the general conditions of sale. As for the second click, it must be used to confirm the order and to make the payment. These are details that usually prove that you are dealing with a reliable online sales site.
In addition, you must ensure that the site is secure. To do this, there are security protocols that you must know. A site must contain at least HTTPS security. If you notice that the online sales platform has a URL that starts with "HTTP" without an "s", you should avoid it. Don't forget to check for the closed padlock to the left of the URL.
The characteristics of the product to be purchased
Unlike a physical store, you can't touch and see a product on an online store before you buy it. That's why you need to use the product sheet and the technical specifications of the item before concluding your action. The advantage with this precaution is that it allows you to make sure that you buy the right product. Indeed, it is not uncommon to receive an item or accessory that does not match the pictures you have seen on the site. Therefore, you should not rely solely on the images. To check the reliability of a platform, consider these details.
Customer reviews
Did you know that customer reviews are very important for online sales platforms and for buyers. Unfortunately, the common mistake consumers make is to rely on customer reviews. Currently, there are three types of customer reviews on the internet.
First, there are the comments posted on the platform. Their authenticity is not verifiable since it is the company that selects the content it publishes.
Then, there are the reviews of Internet users which are fairly reliable. Finally, there are the reviews issued on platforms such as Google My Business and Trustpilot. These sites have algorithms that can distinguish fake reviews from real ones.
In general, you should know that false reviews are plentiful on the Internet. Therefore, these are not the criteria you should rely on to judge the reliability of a website.
The presence of the site on social platforms
The last tip is to check the platform's presence on the internet in general. To do this, you need to look at whether the site has a presence on the main social networks (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter). You should also check for the presence of a Google My Business listing. Finally, try to see if other platforms are talking about the site concerned.
Checking the reliability of a website: in summary
All in all, internet scams will never stop because of the huge number of people with bad intentions. Therefore, it is up to you to distinguish between good and fake e-commerce sites. By using the tips offered here, you will be able to judge the reliability of any e-commerce store.
