Trusted Shops enables trust between people and companies in the digital age. In this way, the trustmark offered by Trusted Shops is an important cornerstone that gives your customers a secure feeling. But even if you have successfully completed the certification and have all your processes figured out, unforeseen difficulties that are beyond your control can still occur. For this reason, we provide the Buyer Protection alongside the trustmark. Thanks to the Buyer Protection, customers can secure their online orders with certified shops and thus protect themselves against financial loss, for example, so that you can satisfy the individual security needs of your customers even more. The Buyer Protection protects customers against three main risk scenarios:
- The goods ordered from you do not arrive.
- The money is not refunded after the customer has returned the goods.
- Your online shop files for insolvency.
Guarantee and warranty cases are expressly not covered by the Buyer Protection.
What Buyer Protection services are available?
Not all Buyer Protection services are the same. There are different variants of the Buyer Protection. Which variants your customers can choose from depends on which target market your online shop serves.
The options for customers from Germany, Austria and the Netherlands
Customers residing in Germany, Austria or the Netherlands can usually choose between two options: Buyer Protection Basic and Buyer Protection PLUS.
| Buyer Protection Basic | Buyer Protection PLUS |
| In the Trusted Shops Buyer Protection Basic version, every individual purchase made by customers registered with Trusted Shops is protected in any certified shop up to a 100 euro order value. This service is free of charge and applies regardless of the chosen payment method. | With the Buyer Protection PLUS variant, purchases up to an order value of 20,000 euros are secured in all certified shops. The customer only has to pay an annual fee of 12 euros for this. |
The Buyer Protection is active for 30 days, i.e. the customer must report problems or discrepancies within this period if he or she wishes to make a claim and is usually concluded immediately after checkout. However, customers can take advantage of the Buyer Protection for their orders up to three days afterwards. One week before the protection period ends, customers are asked by e-mail to confirm that the order went smoothly. If your customers wish to extend their Buyer Protection, they can do so by upgrading to Buyer Protection PLUS. The duration of the Buyer Protection is thereby extended by a further 30 days.
As an alternative to these two standard variants, customers from Germany, Austria and the Netherlands can take out Single Protection. The payment for this is a one-off sum, the amount of which is based on the order value. As in the Buyer Protection PLUS version, Single Protection can also be used to protect orders over 100 euros. For example, customers can protect themselves against financial risks for a gross price of 3.90 euros when placing an order with a value of up to 500 euros. A one-off, 30-day extension of the Single Protection is possible.
The Buyer Protection for customers from six other European countries
Of course, customers from Switzerland, Great Britain, France, Italy, Spain, and Poland also have the option of taking out the Buyer Protection free of charge.
Customers can secure their purchases in certified shops free of charge up to a certain order value as standard. For the Euro countries France, Italy, and Spain this limit is 2,500 euros, for Great Britain 2,500 pounds, for Switzerland 4,000 francs and for Poland 10,000 Złoty. The Buyer Protection is usually active for 30 days in this variant.
What do online shops need to do in order to offer the Buyer Protection?
The Buyer Protection is a fundamental component of the trustmark. In order to offer your customers the Buyer Protection, you must first have your shop certified by Trusted Shops. Successful certification is a prerequisite for the award of the trustmark – and thus also for the Buyer Protection.
Simply get in touch with your contact within the Customer Success Team at +44 203 364 5906 or members@trustedshops.com to get advice on this topic.
In the course of this certification, we define, among other things, the protection framework for your shop. The protection framework is a key element of the Buyer Protection. It corresponds to the financial volume that can be claimed by your customers for the active protection provided by the Buyer Protection. Specifically, it indicates the maximum amount up to which Trusted Shops and our partners guarantee the Buyer Protection in your shop. As described above, the Buyer Protection is active for 30 days as standard. After this period has elapsed, new Buyer Protections can be activated.
What this means exactly can best be explained using an example. In a shop, one product is sold every day for 50 euros each and a Buyer Protection agreement is concluded. After 30 days, the sum of active protections are therefore 1,500 euros. The protection framework must at least cover this amount.
The Buyer Protection is inseparably linked to the trustmark. Certified Trusted Shops members who use the trustmark promise their customers that they can purchase from their online shop with peace of mind, thanks to the Buyer Protection. That’s why the integration of the Buyer Protection is mandatory for certified online shops.
To make it as easy as possible for you to offer the Buyer Protection, all that is required for integration is to embed the Trustbadge® into your shop. If you want to know how to integrate the Trustbadge into your shop, we explain this here: How can I start with the Trustbadge® integration? After integration, your customers are automatically offered the Buyer Protection using the Trustcard on your order confirmation page.
What consequence does the Buyer Protection have for my company's processes?
Even if you have your processes completely under control and the needs of your clientele are your company's top priority, it is of course possible that a customer may trigger a Buyer Protection case out of an individual need for security. In this case we will of course inform you via My Trusted Shops. You can also be informed by e-mail about the activation of a Buyer Protection case.
So that you are optimally prepared for this exceptional case and can react quickly, it is advisable to go through the processing of Buyer Protection cases within your company in advance and to define appropriate responsibilities and roles in good time. Finally, a Buyer Protection case also offers you the opportunity to impress customers with your speedy and courteous customer service. However, a clearly defined and well-coordinated process is a basic prerequisite for this.
How does the Buyer Protection benefit your online shop?
After reading this article, it should be no secret that the Buyer Protection offers your customers a high degree of security. But how does the Buyer Protection benefit your online shop?
The combination of trust and security that you offer with the trustmark and Buyer Protection is one of the reasons that your partnership with Trusted Shops is associated with a strong conversion effect. Numerous online shops in Europe have been awarded the Trusted Shops trustmark and thus offer their customers the Trusted Shops Buyer Protection. More than 19 million people actively use the Buyer Protection and complete it more than 200,000 times a day. In this way, numerous customers have already discovered that they can safely rely on the providers certified by Trusted Shops. This ensures that potential customers can have peace of mind when they shop with the Trusted Shops trustmark. This vote of confidence also increases your conversion rate and reduces order cancellations in your shopping basket. In addition, you can use the trustmark and Buyer Protection as a USP for your business compared to your competitors, so that you can impress potential customers with what you have to offer.