Shoper is testing a tool to detect shady stores. How to recognize them?

Counterfeits, under-deliveries, damaged products - we are taught from childhood how to avoid them when shopping. On the web, many developed methods do not work. Shoper is developing an algorithm that will verify which sellers are playing unfair. It also wants to reward the proven ones with a certificate. The company's experts suggest how to judge for yourself who is dealing in treacherous goods.

The sly one loses twice - the old wisdom holds good in the era of online shopping. "Sneakiness" of online buyers is usually based on the fact that, despite the alarmingly low price, they expect to receive goods as described. The slyness of sellers, on the other hand - on the calculation that no one will catch them on the Internet....

How to verify a store - 5 ways

In view of the numerous cases of displaying fake products impersonating brand-name products and the difficulty of recovering money from dishonest sellers, Shoper has prepared a set of methods to help verify which seller is reliable, so as to reduce the risk.

1. marketplace or store?

It is easier to start an e-commerce business on auction and classifieds sites than to set up your own store. The seller does not incur the expense of building and setting up a website. This can attract people who want to make money in a fraudulent way.

- Absolutely do not assume that every seller on marketplaces is potentially dishonest. These sites often have their own methods of verifying them, including a simple and effective system of comments from buyers. However, it is better to be careful. E.g. check if the seller also has his own e-commerce site. The procedures one has to go through when setting it up are not particularly complicated, but they discourage those focused on instant profit, notes Dariusz Brzezinski, Manager of Customer Service at Shoper.

2. own domain and SSL certificate

Another barrier that dampens the enthusiasm of online scammers is the cost and legal paperwork. Both launching your own domain and installing an SSL certificate involve an expense and the need to meet formal requirements. While these are not impossible to circumvent, they effectively weed out most small-time combers. So a warning light should immediately go on in the head of anyone who comes across a store page with a suspicious address, which in addition does not start with "https".

3 Store Regulations

Some of the stores openly admit, in black and white, that they are not actual sellers, but are merely intermediaries in the transportation of products from China, for example, and are therefore not responsible for their condition. It also states a long shipping date, by today's standards, which should also be of concern. The trouble is that such provisions can be found in the store's terms and conditions, but few buyers will take the trouble to find and read them. It is worth looking into it not only when we have even a shadow of suspicion about the honesty of the seller. The lack of provisions in the terms and conditions regarding the return of goods should also be a cause for concern, and a signal for immediate retreat - the complete absence of regulations.

4 Available payment methods

The availability of only one payment method - transfer to the seller's account - should be another alarm bell. Such a payment method provides very little protection for the buyer. In extreme cases, once the money is sent, contact with the seller may break off. Slightly more secure is cash on delivery. On the other hand, the greatest purchase security is provided by online payments.

- The very fact that a store offers such a form of payment means that it has been positively verified by yet another entity - the payment operator. What's more, it provides the buyer with a convenient and efficient way to return the purchase, notes Krystian Wesolowski of Blue Media, an online payment operator.

5. suspiciously low prices

For some industries and products, the retail margin is tens or even more than a hundred percent as standard. Not surprisingly, the belief is alive among consumers that the distribution system can be circumvented and goods can be obtained "straight from the factory" by secret means.

More often than not, however, a ridiculously cheap product does not mean a unique find, but a simple fake, goods with defects or signs of use. Unfortunately, it is impossible to completely eliminate these risks before buying. The pictures posted by the seller may not be authentic at all. So it doesn't hurt to check them in a search engine. It's also a good idea to ask the seller for photographs of specific product details. If he delays sending them, it's better to give up on a supposed bargain purchase.

Scammers' days are numbered

- If we are very keen on a purchase, and we have noticed worrying signs - it is worth checking information about the e-store in external sources. Just finding the physical address of the company - for example, using Street View from Google, can sometimes reveal that the premises in question will not house a decent store, but at most a fictitious office, says Dariusz Brzezinski. - As a rule, stores running on software from a reputable vendor with a retailer-dedicated look will also be safer. Vendors are keen to ensure that there are no fraudsters among the stores they support, so they fight such practices. Shoper is developing a tool based on artificial neural networks that recognizes deviations from the norm. The algorithm takes into account several hundred variables and assesses how much a store stands out and requires that it be looked at for potentially fraudulent practices. Its warnings naturally still require human verification, Shopera's expert adds.

Toward the end of the year, Shoper plans to introduce certificates that will provide additional assurance of the integrity of merchants using its software.