Almost all businesses can be run online now and almost everyone is interested in shopping online, so there are so many online stores on the web. This also means that there are many fake stores online and it might be hard to differentiate the authentic ones from the fake ones. Some fake ones run under the guise of legitimacy, with real addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and social media handles, so it even makes it harder to know they are fake.
There are some simple ways to identify legitimate online stores. Given the fact that we all love to shop from our comfort zones now, it is best we find out everything about the store before we begin shopping to avoid sad tales, especially after payment has been made.
In this article, we would give you at least ten ways to identify legitimate online stores, so you can shop seamlessly without stories.
Read thoroughly.
How to identify Legitimate online Stores.
These are some simple ways to identify legitimate online stores. If you read carefully and follow accordingly, you are not likely to fall victim to fake stores.
1. Study the entire website thoroughly
If you really want to know a legitimate website or online store, the first thing to do is to scan the entirety of the store before attempting to shop for anything. You can start by observing the store’s name. You don’t want to shop from a store with a cheesy name or a store that has similar names to popular stores. From the name, you can easily tell if it was named in a hurry to scam shoppers or to attract buyers to the site.
For instance, if you are shopping from an online store on Instagram or Facebook, they should have names related to the items they sell or simple names that can be easily pronounced. Be wary of names that sound weird or have numbers attached to them. For instance, if you see names like Shoesforkids001, NailsStore56, you need to check very well to confirm that they are not scam sites, because most legit stores keep their names simple and presentable for documentation purposes.
Another thing you should look out for when thoroughly checking the details of an online store is the number of followers and the number of people the store is following. This is in the case of an Instagram store. After checking out their name, you can check the number of followers.
This would help you know if they are being patronized at all. You can even scan through the followers. A store that sells household items is likely to have lots of household items vendors on its contact list. If you see unrelated followers, just abandon the site.
Generally, whether it is a website or a social media online store, you need to read it carefully and thoroughly. Don’t rely on what you see alone. Poke all corners of the site because even what you think to be true may not turn out to be so.
2. Look out for their Privacy Statement
Another way to know if an online store is legit, is to check for their privacy statement. This applies to stores that have functioning websites. An authentic store must have a privacy statement to help protect its users’ data. All legitimate stores have this because it is a necessity to function.
You can find it at the lower bottom of the home page. It is clearly written as Privacy Policy. For some websites, it pops up once you open them. This is to tell you that they have policies guiding your data protection while you surf the site.
The good thing about privacy statement is that users can read about how their data is being protected while they use the site. This could include names, phone numbers, addresses, zip codes, bank cards and more. If they have a good privacy policy, all these information are kept only on the website for whatever purpose they were given.
They are not shared out with any other website or the general web. They are only saved for as long as the user needs it to be. In this way, it is also hard to hack users’ information if the site is hacked. If you want to know a legitimate online store, it must have this privacy policy feature, so that your data is not gathered for fraud.
Check for SEO scams
Checking for SEO scams is very important. Many fake websites usually have similar URLs to the original website. Most of them even have the same layout, interface and writing structure. The best way to know this is to search for the website on Google or any other search tool.
Once you type the website name and you get other options with the same name, you have to take note. Most times, the first site to pop up with that name is not the original one. Even if it has the same name and logo with the original one, keep scrolling, it is not it. Original websites might not be easy to spot, but once you open them, you would know.
They would ask you to allow cookies, enable location, among a few other things before you gain access to the site. Scan websites look exactly like the original but there are a lot of differences in them. Another way to spot SEO scams on a website is when the website has a lot of ads. In fact, if the first thing that pops up is an ad, you should be concerned.
Fake websites have too many ads on them, such that when you search for the site name from the onset, you are presented with an ad. Therefore, if you notice issues like this, don’t make use of the site. If you also notice that there are two similar sites with the same names and same structure, don’t make use of it.
3. Check all their contact details
Another way to identify legitimate online stores is through their contact details. To be able to know a legitimate store, you should go through their contact details thoroughly. Whether it is a website store or a social media store, they should have a number of contact details. They must have an address that can be traced on the map, a phone number that is active, such that once you place a call, it is received, an email address that you can send mails to and a number that you can chat with on WhatsApp or Telegram. Most authentic websites have all of these and more because they want to provide quality customer service to their customers. The only way to do so is by having functioning contact details.
In the cases of fake online stores, they might have all the contact details and they might even respond to you but the best way to know if they are genuine or not is from their response. If you get unprofessional responses from the calls or mails, you can easily tell that they are not legit. If you get responses that are too slow or too quick, you might want to question them. For instance, you send a mail to ask if an item is available and you get a response saying it is and you are asked to purchase it quickly before it is sold out, that might be quite fishy. Or a response that is giving you too much discounts that is not even on the home page. You need to check all of this very well before using the site.
Read Reviews both on the site and other review sites
Another way to know an original online store is through reviews. Stores that are authentic and have served their customers well are likely to have reviews about them, either on their page or on other review sites.
Legitimate stores that have functioned well and have good customer service would definitely have good reviews written about them. Even if the reviews are not so good, they would have reviews. The idea behind this is that people have made use of their services or bought goods from them and they have something to say about them.
If nobody has ever bought anything from them, there would be no reviews or if they were scammed while trying to use the page, there would be reviews stating that. You can read the reviews on the website or on review sites.
You can easily type the name of the website and ask Google if there are any reviews written about it. You can just check for random reviews on websites similar to that one.
If it is a social media store like an Instagram or Facebook store, you can read the comments under the products to know the reviews. If the store is not fake, people would definitely drop good or bad comments. This counts as reviews. From what you read, you can deduce if the store is fake or not. Although, some fake stores can employ fake comments also, so you need to read between the lines to be very sure that the reviews are not made up.
4. Check the available payment services
Another way to know if an online store is legitimate is through their payment services. Legitimate stores have multiple payment options sometimes. They make use of bank transfers, card payments and mobile banking. Their payment options are always displayed at the foot of the home page, so that customers can see the available options and make their choices.
Many of them have the same names for all the payment methods. Most times, it is usually the name of the brand that appears when making payments. The first thing to note is that no original store would ask for your pin without sending you a One Time Password (OTP) to process the payment. Also, if you are making transfers, it’s the name of the brand that must appear. If you see a strange name, ignore. Also, if the payment mode is not direct and it is probably routing you through another site, don’t bother. If it is also asking you for personal account information that is not necessary during payment, ignore it too.
Legit stores have direct and popular models of payment that is well known to everyone, such that if there are any issues, they can be rectified with your bank and there would be evidence of the transaction.
Make sure you are familiar with the payment services before using the site, so that refunds or retractions can be done easily.
5. Check for Certificate of Authentication and Licenses
Checking for Certificates of Authentication and Operation Licenses is another way to know legitimate online stores. Most legitimate online stores are registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission of their country and they get a certificate for this.
Some have other licenses from approved corporate bodies to function under certain capacity. Legitimate stores easily display these certificates or licenses under their home page, so that customers and intending customers can see it.
This facilitates a high level of trust between the customers and the brand owners. Once you see a certificate relating to the business, you are most likely to trust the authenticity of the page and patronize them. You can even double check by making sure that the certificates exist on other similar platforms.
Fake stores do not take their time to include all of these, and even if they do, you can easily tell that it is a scam. Some of them might have too many certificates while others might have unknown certificates. You can scan the web to make sure that the certificates on their pages are original or not. Check for legal certificates and documents that are related to the business. If you are not comfortable with what you see, ignore.
6. Check The Google Transparency report webpage
Another way to identify legitimate online stores is by checking with the Google Transparency report webpage. This allows you know if the page is scam or not. If the page has been reported before as scam, the webpage tells you this, so you can avoid using it.
It detects scan through their policies. If the site does not have a strong data protection policy and if it has cookies that can cause virus to your system, it tells you so immediately. If the content is unsafe for you, the transparency report webpage detects it and lets you know. It has diagnostic tools that keys you know if the site is safe for browsing or not.
Also, if the page has been reported before, you would know because it would be shown. It sends the data back t o Google, so it can do a thorough search and give you true results. Legitimate stores would easily pass this test because they function appropriately.
Fake stores would definitely shows flaws immediately. Therefore, to easily identify legitimate online stores, make use of the Google Transparency report webpage, so you can be on the safe side.
7. Check their Social media pages
Having a social media account is kind of important to online businesses these days. In fact, some online businesses are actually running through social media pages, so it is very important that you scan those pages very well before using them. First things first, check their social media names, be sure that there aren’t multiple pages with that same name.
Legitimate stores have a single page, that may be verified or not. Beware of pages that have back up pages, especially multiple ones. Secondly, you can check the year the page was opened and number of times the page has been renamed. If a page has been renamed more than three times, it means the page was bought and renamed.
It also means the followers may not be genuine; they could just be numbers. Thirdly, check how often they put up posts of their products.
A legit online store would post regularly. This is because they need a lot of engagement to make sales. If you notice that the posts are not frequent, there might be a problem. Another thing you need to check for on their social media page is the contact address. Beware of most online stores on Instagram particularly, that claim there are no pickup addresses.
Most if them may just want to collect your money and vanish. Beware of those who change their name and contact often. They are masking and covering up. From a store’s social media page, you can learn all you need to know about them. From comments to contacts, to likes and followers.
8. Follow your instincts
Lastly, always follow your instincts. If you are scanning a page and you don’t feel comfortable shopping there, leave it and go elsewhere. You can get reviews from friends that have shopped with particular stores and use theirs because there is evidence that they have been used before. If you are shopping on a new site and you are not enjoying the services or you feel the need to abandon it, do so. You can easily read or feel when the site is legitimate or not.
If things are going too smoothly on the site, it might also be a sign to stop. If things are being too slow, it might also be a sign to exit the site. Make sure you are comfortable with all the processes before proceeding to make payments, to avoid being scammed.
Also Read: How to Shop Online Ultimate Guide
Summary
In all of this, make sure you research the store very well before you decide to shop from them. Identifying legitimate online stores may not be as easy as you think and the ways to identify them are not restricted to the tips we have mentioned.
Make sure you do your research well, check for true reviews, compare prices, look out for errors and malfunctions on the site, check for date of establishment, how many customers have used the store, how authentic their products are and how much sales they have made.
Be sure to gather enough evidence that proves the store is legit, so you can shop seamlessly.