How tos

How to tell if an E-commerce website is Legit

We all love shopping… at least most of us do; depending on what we’re shopping for. The introduction of e-commerce was such a convenient invention. Yaani you can just look for things online and they magically appear at your doorstep? It’s amazing, right?  

As with all great inventions, there are 50 fakes. As convenient as online shopping may be, it can sometimes get difficult to know if the site you’re on is a scam or you’ll actually get what you pay for. We have some quick tips to help you maneuver through this big bad wide web. 

1. Spot the Difference

A new wave has come up where scammers set parallel websites for known brands.  I recently spotted a victim on social media, we’ll call her Faith, who bought a fridge from what she thought was a leading e-commerce website.  Of course, she never received it but was taken through an endless conversation from the ‘salesman’.  If you look keenly, you can spot the difference between the legit e-commerce site and the scam: 

  • The website was different but similar to the real one
  • The scam website had 1,276 likes which were too few for a large brand like the real one
  • She was required to pay to a personal number, which would be unheard of for a big brand
  • The ‘salesman’ was using unofficial language; usually, big brands will be official.

Learn to scrutinize the websites to ensure that they are who they claim to be. Pick out red flags and join the dots

2. Study the website

  • Url – A secure website looks something like this:

The padlock icon tells you that the website will secure any information you submit to it using encrypted communications. The “s” in “https” means that any communication between your device and the website is secure and encrypted. Do not feed in sensitive information to a website that doesn’t have “https” on their checkout page. 

  • Use of proper English; Be on the lookout for poor grammar and spellings
  • Contact details  – Physical address, internet email eg Gmail/yahoo as opposed to official email. Don’t get roped into a shady site that you can’t contact if your product arrives looking shoddy or doesn’t arrive at all. Does the site have an active phone number? Is there an email address? Something to help you get in touch to know that they’re the real deal. 

3. Social Media

Does the website have a Social media presence? Study the posts- what are people saying in the comments section? What is the page’s level of engagement and does the brand actually respond to requests? It’s ok to use stock images but are there some real images on the brand’s social media pages from actual customers or is everything curated? Asking yourself these questions (and answering them) will help you avoid getting scammed. 

4. Customer Reviews

“Kizuri chajiuza, kibaya chajitembeza” is a Swahili saying loosely translated to mean something good will sell, something bad will advertise. Is the brand the only one advertising itself? Are other people talking about it? Check out the Google reviews, customer feedback on social media. Doing a quick search on the website will help you find out what other people have to say about it. 

5. Location, Location, Location

Have you ever bumped into one of those websites that don’t have a verifiable location? A listed physical address does help to take the anxiety away knowing you have a place to return your product in case of anything. A phone number alone can be a red flag because you can easily switch off the phone but moving an entire office does take quite a bit of time and commitment. 

Shopping is fun and doing it online shouldn’t take away from your joy. With these five simple tips, you’ll be well on your way to stress-free shopping. Share with us your tips for shopping online and don’t forget to stop by our website: www.createatee.co.ke (our site is secure, we have awesome customer reviews and you can contact us anytime, anywhere 😉

Author : Create A Tee

Create A Tee is a garment decorating company in Nairobi- Kenya, that offers an online platform for private individuals, commercial organisations, social groups to design, buy and sell creative and personalized apparel. Our ecommerce platform enables clients to design and order customized apparel specifically t-shirts, polo shirts, rugby shirts, hoodies, zoodies, sweat shirts, canvas bags, and office shirts all made of premium 100% cotton! Our Create A Tee design lab allows people to choose from library of design ideas, clipart, fonts and colors, or upload their own images to be printed on their apparel of choice. Our print technique assures superior service with NO MINIMUM ORDER, NO SET UP FEE and a fast turnaround. Our direct-to-garment (DTG) digital printing technology will give you the good results, without compromising quality or service.

Leave a Reply