Shopping online can be a risky mission. If we buy from well-known stores such as Temu or Shein we usually don’t have problems, but if they are stores that we have never heard of, things change. We’ve all heard of shopping scams, SMS scams or Wallapop, so it’s possible that we are now afraid of any transaction on a site we don’t know.
But although we can always end up falling into a scam, there are some points that we can take into account when deciding whether or not to buy from a site. We’ll tell you the four main points you should consider before giving credibility to a store.
Make sure it’s a safe address
Before we start buying on a website that we don’t know too well, the first point we have to take into account is that the website we are buying from is safe. To do this, one of the points we must look at is whether the address we see in the navigation bar begins with https. That is the protocol that indicates that a website is encrypted, so in the event that we see that the s does not appear, we should suspect that it may not be a good idea to buy there.
There are secure websites that do not have this protocol active on all their pages, but we must make sure that the s appears at least on the pages where we are entering our data or the necessary information to be able to make the payment.
If it doesn’t show up, even if the store itself was reliable, anyone could steal our data, so buying there won’t be a good idea.
See seller reviews
There are platforms, such as Ebay or AliExpress, that not only sell their own products but also act as a marketplace. This means that they offer products from different sellers through their platform. And as you might expect, not all of them are equally reliable. Therefore, we must be careful when choosing who we buy from. And one of the easiest ways to find out is to read the reviews that other users have left about these sellers.
If we see that most of a salesperson’s customers speak well of him, there are usually no problems. On the other hand, if the same seller has a large number of negative reviews, it is probably better to look for another option to buy.
Many times there are several sellers offering the same product, so we recommend that you always choose the one with the best reviews from their buyers.
Search social media
Social networks can be a fairly reliable tool to try to find out if a store is truly reliable.
On the one hand, it is very common for users who have had a bad experience with a store to leave a record of it on networks. Therefore, searching for the store where we are considering buying on networks can lead us to read a large number of comments from other users. And in this way we will be able to discover if in general the experience has been positive.
And on the other hand, the way the online store itself communicates on social networks can also tell us a lot about its reliability. For example, if we see that when a customer communicates a problem they try to respond or solve the problem, this will give us a positive image of them. On the other hand, if the feedback is bad or if the company does not have any presence on social networks, it can be an indication that we should not trust it too much.
Beware of overly flashy offers
It is very common that what we look for when we are trying to buy on the Internet are low prices. However, we should not be dazzled by offers that may seem exaggerated. It is normal for some stores at specific times to offer some products at good prices, but when these are well below the market price it is important to be careful.
To find out if an offer is “logical”, we recommend that you look at the prices of the same product in other stores. If it is a little higher, it may be a one-off offer, but if there is a very big difference, you may find yourself facing a scam.
Keep in mind that no company can operate working at a loss, so if it is impossible for them to make money by selling a product at a certain price, it is because there is something wrong. It is possible that the product is of much lower quality than what they are trying to sell us at first. And there is even the possibility that such a product does not even exist and they are simply trying to cajole us into giving them our bank details. It is very good that we try to take advantage of the offers, but always taking into account that the price drops are consistent.
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