If 47.1% of Italians buy something online on a weekly basis, among those who are ‘offline’ a large group of diehards still believe it is dangerous to buy online. The first challenge to be overcome in order to be successful online is therefore to build a relationship of trust with the buyer.
“An online transaction – explains Vendula Cirova, marketing manager in Italy for the e-commerce of lentiamo.it – does not necessarily offer the same opportunities as a traditional sale and the buyer is asked to refrain from exercising a judgment ‘skin’ on the operator. Furthermore, online it is possible to build a website dedicated to the sale of counterfeit products, and consequently the consumer cannot feel totally protected from dishonest sellers, whose final objective perhaps is only to steal personal data, or even worse, those of the credit card”.
The reluctance towards online shopping
“This reluctance towards online shopping, which still exists, will never completely disappear, but it has certainly diminished over the years thanks to greater consumer insight. In fact, it takes very little to identify the least reliable e-commerce sites”, adds Cirova.
The lentiamo.it IT team has therefore prepared a vademecum to guide you before proceeding with the online purchase.
First of all, analyze the url of the site. Just click on the padlock icon that precedes the link and check if the connection is considered secure or not. In addition, there are tools such as Google Transparency Report that certify the safety of sites in seconds.
Check the trustworthiness of the site
If the business has been around for some time and the activity is legitimate, surely useful information can be found online. In any case, it’s best to check the reviews. If the seller is correct, it is usually possible to read the reviews collected by a certified external service already on the home page. But if ‘it’s too good to be true’ it’s probably a scam. Online you save, sometimes even a lot, but if the price of the product is incredibly lower than in other e-commerce, a scam is probably hiding.
Therefore, each e-commerce must report company data, including the VAT number. By connecting to the Agenzia delle Entrate website, and entering the Verification of VAT number section, it is possible to verify whether the number actually corresponds to the company that owns the site.
If a company is serious it has an efficient Customer Care
If the doubt persists, it may be an idea to contact customer service. If the site is true and real, the dedicated assistance team will respond quickly by unraveling any uncertainty.
“Winning the consumer’s trust – underlines Cirova – even before he can ascertain the quality of the service is the most important challenge for those who work in the world of e-commerce: if it is true that a single negative experience is enough to lose it, because generate a relationship and build customer loyalty, the journey is much longer”.