Learn more about the Trusted Shops Legal Compliance Check

This April, at the Internet World Munich, Germany, Trusted Shops featured its free Legal Compliance Check. This powerful legal tool helps retailers finding legal weaknesses in their online shop right away and provides useful upgrading hints.

The Trusted Shops Legel Team of Excellence in certification had guided the retailers through the Legal Compliance Check: A personal service which didn’t take much longer than 10 minutes in average. Receiving a detailed analysis, their shops finally met relevant legal criteria.

Meet Trusted Shops at Internet World in London

From April 27 to 29 the Internet World is present in London. Take the chance to meet Trusted Shops at the trade fair and find out more about the Trusted Shops Legal Compliance Check  as well as the Customer Ratings!

You will find Trusted Shops at the Sage Pay ‘networking bar’, located in the middle of the exhibition floor at Earls Court / stand number E4035 in Earls Court 2. Or arrange a time with our sales team: sales@trustedshops.com.

The Internet Word boosts the UK’s largest gathering of leading industry suppliers and unrivalled networking opportunities for professionals across retail, publishing, digital marketing, advertising, IT, design and other senior level business strategists.

The entrance to the Internet World is free, if you register before. Further information about the trade fair are available at www.internetworld.co.uk.

What is the idea behind your online store?
www.CheesyBug.co.uk was created to give web presence for CheesyBugToys

Why did you decide to start an e-commerce business?
I was looking to start my own business having become disillusioned with working for other people and having worked in retail for my entire work life starting my own retail business seemed like the obvious choice. I had been selling items on ebay for a while and it seemed like the correct choice for me to create my own web presence. I didn’t really know what to sell, but it was suggested that I look at Educational Toys; I searched the web and found a company willing to supply me and it snow balled from there. We started online trading in September 2005 and www.cheesybugtoys.co.uk was created.

Could you tell us about your professional life before you started your online store?
I had worked in retail prior to starting the business and managed a number of high profile sports stores.

Do you work fulltime or part time for your online business?
Everyone works full time at www.cheesybug.co.uk

Which shop system are you currently using?
We currently use a 1&1 Professional Shop Package. This suits our needs and whilst being reasonably priced is compatible with most major card payment systems and search engines.

Which payment systems does your Shop offer?
We currently offer Credit Card payments via Protx which allows us to accept MasterCard, Visa, Maestro, Delta & Amex and also offer Paypal. There are no current plans to add any others.

What are the advantages of your online shop against a high street store?
We can keep expenses to a minimum and do not need to keep high volumes of stock. An online presence allows us to target a wider range of customers.

Do you also run a physical store?
We do not run a physical store.

Does your store have any special features or functions?
The store has a fully functioning search facility. Customers can create their own account, preventing the need to fill in delivery details every time they order. It automatically broadcasts product feed to Google Base and other search providers.

What measures have you taken to increase consumer confidence?
We have signed upto a number of safe shopping sites, with the main focus being on the Trusted Shops agreement which gives our customers a Full Money back Guarantee. A recent review of our Terms & Conditions and these are emailed to our customers once an order is placed as well as being visible on the site.

What did you do to increase the visibility of your shop?
We have taken several steps to optimize our online shop for search engines like Google. We are also investing in Google AdWords Reviewing the titles and descriptions of our products and including relevant keywords and information to become more search engine friendly.

What are you currently working on?
We are currently working building relationships with a number of other retailers and suppliers. In retail you just can’t sit still, so we are looking at sourcing new products and expanding our offer. We have also recently signed new agreements with our carriers to provide an improved service to speed the delivery of our products.

For more information click here or visit the Tusted Shops Shopprofile of cheesybugtoys.co.uk.

Today we will give leads related to shipping information in international online retail, based on Linda Bustos article “7 ways to improve International e-commerce availability” published by Palmer Web:

Have an international shipping page,
rather than an FAQ or a non intuitive help page. Footer menu and top right hand of the web page are proven locations a consumer would easily go to. It is useful if with one page you want to cover multiple countries; an alternative is to have one website per country.

Include important information,
such as return policies, hotline phone number and availability, estimated shipping times, order tracking availability. Local regulations regarding return policies must be observed; clarity and availabilit will increase your customer satisfaction.

Make your shipping policy searchable,
optimizing the use of keywords such as “international” on your website search engine.

Show international shipping availability on product pages,
regarding the authorisation or not of products in certain countries, respecting local regulations.

Convert currencies, weight and measures on product pages,
think for example at the various currencies in Europe euros (EUR), pounds (GBP), swiss francs (CHF) etc…

Estimate shipping costs on your product page,
developing your own grid or using standard API developed by the various shipping carriers. It is key to be also consistent between the information your deliver on your website and the information delivered in the basket during the ordering process.

Send post sale emails,
will show that you care about international business. You will learn also a lot from your customers so do not hesitate to ask for input of what you could propose as a service for international business.