It has never been so difficult to recognize when an online shop is not a real online shop. Learn in this article what it means when a webshop is not a real webshop, how to recognize such a shop, and how the entire business behind it works. This will help you avoid accidentally spending money online just for junk.
When the online shop is not a real online shop
The Dropshipping Trend
Many users are not yet familiar with the terminology. Dropshipping refers to the e-commerce concept of offering products that are sold directly from a manufacturer to the end customer via an e-commerce solution. In this case, the e-commerce solution, the online shop, is merely a kind of intermediary platform between the product manufacturer and the end customer.
A few years ago, it was still laborious to realize a solid e-commerce solution, but today there are sophisticated tools for the average shop that allow you to set up a webshop cost-effectively. There are platforms that perfectly support so-called dropshipping. In short, it works like this:
A student, a pupil, or a supposedly clever businessman installs such a shop. Additionally, he installs a dropshipping plugin. Now he can choose from many manufacturers from all over the world and almost all products in the world which he would like to sell in his shop. He selects his range and sends this request to the manufacturer (or manufacturers). They look at where the shop is located, which Target audience will probably be addressed, and send back a price list for each product. With this, the student now has his purchase price. This all happens within the plugin and involves no effort for the operator.
Now he can add any margin he likes and start “his business.” What he sells, he will never see. The manufacturers ship the goods directly to the end customer in the dropshipping model. So the shop operator also knows nothing about the quality of his products.
Now the shop needs a few trust factors so that the end customers will also eagerly shop. According to Google, product reviews, for example, can help with this. These can be conjured up with other shop plugins. This makes it possible to import reviews for products that have nothing to do with the shop itself but are simply product reviews for the corresponding products.
The catch here is the target audience. We all know that, for example, a review on booking.com depends a lot on who wrote it. The dropshipping shop operator, however, does not care in which language a review was written, because these plugins also offer translations. Additionally, reviews can be purchased, which are typed together more poorly than well in low-wage countries.
So, dropshipping means that a provider offers products that he does not know, and promotes them with reviews that may come from some user in the Far East and do not meet the quality standards of the current Target audience. And dropshipping also means that the shop operator does not need to have any knowledge of his business. He can happily sell, for example, clothing items, even if he has no clue about fashion, the associated production process, the materials, and the manufacturing.
Content preparation, multilingualism, blog posts: All AI-supported
Now artificial intelligence (AI) comes into play: With a few clicks, the shop operator can generate matching content (e.g., blog posts), offer the shop in different languages, and translate product descriptions. The user then thinks that there must be a reputable company behind it, because otherwise, all the effort would not be possible. Well, that is no longer the case, and AI makes it possible.
Getting to the bottom of the problem
It doesn't work without minimal effort
If you want to know what is really behind an online shop, then you cannot do without minimal effort. Here are a few points that can separate the wheat from the chaff.
Read the imprint
Be critical and read the imprint. Who is behind the solution? Is it a company or just a name (student, pupil)? What legal form does the company have? Are there contact details that can actually be used to contact the business? Is there perhaps an extract from the commercial register?
In a solid and trustworthy imprint, you will find, among other things, content on these points:
- Company address (real, postal address)
- Contact with email and phone (a number that can also be tested)
- Names of the company owners
- Information on the company's entry in the commercial register
- Possibly the extract from the commercial register
Critically question product reviews
If an item from a rather unknown shop has 64 reviews, then that should make you think. Look at the reviews. Is there anything meaningful? Especially read the bad reviews, because these are usually real reviews, while the 5-star reviews can be bought in large quantities.
Here is an example of very suspicious reviews that are not meaningful anyway.
Fortunately, for legal reasons, some plugins support the indication that a review comes from an external source, if that is the case:
Take the product in hand on site
Challenge the shop owner: Can you view and handle his products somewhere in Switzerland? Make an appointment and do just that. However, do not specify in advance which item you want to view – otherwise, the shop owner could determine exactly this item himself. Test whether he has some kind of stock and really knows the products.
What we at michelangelo intimo are doing against this dropshipping trend
With the quality brands Zimmerli, HANRO, ISA bodywear and VINZ Silkwear we sell products that are not very easy to copy and are known worldwide. Nevertheless, we want to raise awareness among our customers on this topic with this post, for example.
Our imprint has been set up as suggested. You will also find our extract from the commercial register there.
We do not cheat. We do a lot to ensure that our customers from Switzerland, who buy products from us, write product reviews. However, this is an almost hopeless endeavor (who likes to write reviews!). Nevertheless, we do not buy reviews. We want real opinions from our real customers and not a purchased opinion, for example, from a South Korean.
We regularly write a Newsletter, with which our customers notice that we deal with our products and manufacturers and want to offer you the best of the best Swiss brands.
And we always have an open ear for all concerns. Contact us with any questions – gladly also on the topic of dropshipping – at 044 809 70 44. We look forward to hearing from you!