Given the past two years of uncertainty, with COVID-19 ravaging our shores and changing life as we knew it, it’s no wonder consumers are becoming less confident, both in-store and online. Although the number of online sales has certainly increased since 2020, so has the amount of cybercrime, and this is making shoppers nervous. And it’s not just online crime that’s an issue. Quality of products and problems with shipping have also created havoc for online shoppers.
Real Experiences Matter
Take Caroline, for example. Caroline called us to ask about buying clothes online. As it turned out, she’d recently purchased a few items from an “Australian website” – but what they didn’t tell her is that the items she bought were actually being shipped from a warehouse in China – in a drop-shipping kind of setup. On doing more research, she found out the company that was located in China wasn’t exactly ethical either. Unsurprisingly, her products never arrived.
Funnily enough, not long after Caroline called, we also had a call from Sandra who told us she’d used another Australian website to buy a gorgeous dress for her daughter’s wedding. Her credit card details were stolen during the unsecure payment process and used for fraudulent purchases.
It took a bit of reassuring, but we finally convinced Caroline and Sandra that they could buy on our website securely, and the products were guaranteed to arrive, with fast shipping at the ready. And now, to help other shoppers, here’s our best advice for how you can shop safely online.
How To Shop Safely Online
- Check the website content and read their About Us page. This will help you find out who they are, where they are located, and to ensure they are a legitimate retailer. If you have any concerns, send them an email or message, and ask questions. Any company that is legitimate will gladly tell you their location and any other details you want.
- Make sure their site is secure – look for a picture of a little lock. If you see HTTPS in the website domain, it means the website is Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure and uses an SSL security certificate. That certificate encrypts the communication between the website and its visitors which ensures the website is safe, so hackers can't get their hands on it.
- Know your credit card’s policy on fraud and how you can go about getting your money back if someone has stolen from you. Both Mastercard and Visa offer a ‘Zero Liability’ policy, which means you won’t be held responsible for fraudulent charges on your card. You can read Mastercard’s policy here, and the Visa policy here.
- Check the website in detail. To start with, check the home page to see if there has been any mention of secure shopping, accreditations such as Afterpay, and look for details on their return policies.
- Always read their Terms and Conditions to see what their policies are for products that arrive in poor condition – or that don’t arrive at all.
- Keep your antivirus protection updated. Thieves won’t always wait for you to give them information; so, make sure you keep your antivirus software up to date to protect against malware. A full-blown security package with antivirus software will protect against spam, spear-phishing emails, and phishing attacks from websites, as well as other threats.
- Check their reviews and testimonials! But don’t just look at the reviews on their website. You need to do some research. Check reviews on their social media as well, and simply Google to find testimonials and reviews from customers that are published on other sites. These are likely to be honest reviews.
- Read the delivery instructions. While some companies may claim to be Australian, you might find, like Caroline did, that the goods are actually being sent from a warehouse in China – via an Australian seller. It’s just not the same thing. A good tip is that if the products are going to take 3+ weeks to arrive, they’re probably not in Australia to start with.
- Finally, if you want to make sure the company you’re buying from is truly Aussie, there’s one sure way to do so check for an ABN. You can do that by looking through their website, asking them if they don’t have an ABN published, or by looking up the company at the Australian Business Register.
Shop Online With Confidence
There are plenty of reasons why you should shop online, so don’t let one bad experience, or someone else’s story, turn you against it. By shopping online, you’ll have access to fantastic sales and deals that you won’t find in the stores, and you can get great products delivered within a few days – you don’t even have to leave the house.
Simply use your common sense, follow the tips mentioned above, and purchase products from reputable Australian companies like us here at Cotton Dayz! And of course, if you have any concerns or questions, always contact the seller before you buy.
Confidently browse our range of women’s clothing online - Australia based Cotton Dayz provides safety and convenience for a great shopping experience.
