With Valued Shops, Europe has gained a new trustmark and review system. It is already active in the Netherlands, but under the name WebwinkelKeur. The company is now launching an international trustmark, in eight languages, with an initial focus on the German market.
In the Netherlands, WebwinkelKeur is a well-known trustmark for online stores. It has gathered almost 10,000 members in 15 years. Thanks to its low price strategy, it is also very popular among small and new online stores.
Assessing disputes
As a member, you can get your online store checked on several legal points. According to research, many online stores are not in compliance with laws and regulations. There are a lot of laws that online sellers need to comply with in Europe. These differ per country, which makes it confusing. Additionally, fines for businesses are quite high.
With Valued Shops, the company also offers mediation for legal disputes
In addition to the fact that a trustmark radiates trust to customers, online stores can also save costs with it. For example, WebwinkelKeur can mediate legal disputes. This can be a solution for smaller businesses, as they do not always have the legal strength themselves. In the Netherlands, the company has a separate platform with lawyers for this. It has the same ambition for Valued Shops, but for the time being it only offers mediation via its own employees.
Collecting reviews for Google or Trustpilot and Valued Shops
Valued Shops also offers a review system. In addition to reviews for its own platform, it allows members to invite customers to leave a review on platforms like Google, Facebook or Trustpilot. The latter is also well-known in Germany, but comes with a hefty price tag. With Valued Shops’ subscription, this is included in the price, and online sellers can also easily collect reviews on it.
With this, the company sees great opportunities in Germany in particular. Germans tend to be critical and are more likely to read multiple reviews before buying something. Also, fake reviews are a bigger social discussion point there than in the Netherlands.
‘In the Netherlands, half of the new players consider purchasing a membership from WebwinkelKeur’
With an ecommerce market that is about five times larger than in the company’s home market, the launch of Valued Shops could mean significant growth for the organization. Frank Hautvast, CEO of the company, thinks that growth will take some time: “In the Netherlands we have enormous brand awareness, especially among smaller online stores, due to our lower rates. When I look at our figures, about half of the new players are considering purchasing a trustmark from WebwinkelKeur, which is obviously huge. In Germany we still have to build all that up.”
