How To Shop Safely Online
ShopBug.com has been operational in Singapore for over 5 years, selling baby products, ladies fashion apparels and accessories, and during these period of time, we have received numerous enquiry about whether is it safe to shop with us, how secure is the payment with us, and what security measures we are taking to protect their payment.
Most of the time, when comes to these customers, they usually have a sad story to tell about how they got conned or cheated from other online vendors and they are just worried sick when comes to shopping online. Yet, they still prefer to do their shopping online because of the convenience and also the ease and comfort of shopping from their home. So, though it is sort of like a Catch-22, they still feel more at ease if their questions are answered and preferably, by someone over the phone rather through email.
We decided to post this article and hopefully it can give you a better guideline to shop safely online.
First thing first, to be honest, asking us or any other online ecommerce vendor about the above questions, especially about “whether it is safe to shop with us…” is just a waste of time. Nobody, especially those who have the intention to con you, will tell you that it is NOT safe to shop with them.
No way!! They won’t tell you that.
They’ll give you all the jargons and all the testimonials from unknown ‘so-called-customers’ and how happy their customers are with their lower-than-possible prices and gives you all the reasons why they are the BEST online vendor and so forth. The fact is, nobody will tell you they are not secure, even us, as a matter of fact. And that’s another reason why we don’t list testimonials from our customer directly here, we actually point you to where they are found, which is actually from other third-party website.
To protect your purchases and payment, you’ll need to do your homework about the vendor first. You’ll need to find out the background of the online store, their history, their awards and may be accomplishment, and preferably, find out more about them from their other customers.
This is a very crucial step and should never be skipped for whatsoever reason.
If you don’t know an online retailer by its brand or reputation, these tips can help you determine whether they’re operating a secure and trustworthy Web site before you enter your credit card number or personal information.
Before you select a store:-
- Do a background check. Look for a physical address (not a Post Office box), request a catalog by mail, or call and talk to a company representative.
- Explore the Web site for third-party seals of approval
Companies can put these seals on their sites if they abide by a set of rigorous standards—such as how complaints and disputes will be resolved and how personal information can be used. If you don’t readily see these seals on the site, look in the privacy policy or “Terms & Conditions” which should be clearly posted on the site.- Tip: If you do see the seals above, click them to make sure they link to the organization that created them. Some unscrupulous merchants will put these logos on their sites without permission, and they’re less likely to get caught if they don’t link back to the site.
- Find out what other shoppers have to say about an online store on comparison sites such as Epinions or Bizrate. These sites have customer evaluations built into their design with a number of smiley faces or stars.
- Review their shipping methods and policies to determine what carriers they use, their shipping rates, and if they provide tracking and insurance. Also find out where they ship from—goods are sometimes sent from international locations, which require customs and extra time.
Before you enter your credit card number:-
So, you’ve found the perfect item at the perfect price and you’re ready the purchase. Before you enter your credit card number, make sure the store you’ve chosen abides by the following rules.
- The company should only require personal information that’s necessary to complete the purchase. You will probably enter your credit card number, address, and telephone number. Be wary if they ask for other information such as your ID number, bank account numbers, or your mother’s maiden name.
- Note: Some reputable companies might ask for your interests by having you check certain boxes. This information should not be required to complete the purchase.
- The Web site should use secure technology. When you get to the screen where you enter your credit card number or other personal information, make sure the Web address begins with https (for example, https://www.paypal.com/) and check to see if a tiny locked padlock appears at the bottom right of the screen.
Trust your instincts
If a site matches all the criteria above, then there’s a good chance that the site is both legitimate and reliable. But as with most things online or off, if you get a bad feeling about a store, skip it and shop somewhere else.
What about ShopBug.com? I do not see any Seals of Approval from any authority?
Oops, you caught us 
Not really so my friend, we were once accredited by TrustSg Singapore, which is a trustmark for e-merchants, jointly brought to the eCommerce community by the National Trust Council and iDA Singapore. It is a leading trustmark authority in Singapore and the seal of approval from TrustSg dictates the compliance to the rigorous checks for the ecommerce vendor, regarding its payment acceptance, sales procedure, terms & conditions, and most of all, the privacy policy.
You may still be able to see us listed at TrustSg (if they did not remove us yet). Just go to this page and search for Shopbug Pte Ltd.
So why are we not accreditated by TrustSg anymore?
It is a very difficult decision to make when we decided to drop out of the program, in fact, we have been pondering over it for over 2 years before we finalize our decision to withdraw from the program.
The reason for the withdrawal is simple. It is due to the high cost for keeping the seal.
If you look at the fee structure for TrustSg accreditation, you’ll see that it is not cheap to maintain the seal and even though sometimes they’ll waive our fee payment, the charges are still considerably very high.
We decided that paying such a high fee to get a seal of approval from a third-party, is somewhat similar to paying someone to give us a good praise for our services and products, it’s just not that …. emmm…. great.
We feel that with that fee, we might as well convert it to benefits and discounts to our customers so that you can enjoy better prices and great shopping experience with us. We don’t need governing body to tell us how to serve our customers, we know how. And if we don’t do well, our customes will tell us. So, why spend the money to a third party when we should spend it on our loyal customers instead. And that’s the reason why we do not carry the seal anymore.
On the other hand, we are still waiting for TrustSg to drop their fees to something more attractive to us. If they do, we may still hop on the bandwagon and have a good ride with other accreditated members. There is no contradiction to what we say here. We did not dispute the usefulness of TrustSg seal, we just say that we can’t afford it as we feel the money is best spend on our customers rather than any other third-party governing body.
Why ShopBug.com is not using secure web technology (https://)?
We are as secure-minded as you can be, especially when our founder, Delson Moo, is from the I.T. industry and have been providing numerous consultation to his customers about web security.
The reason we are not using secure website (https://) is because we do not process your credit card payment directly from our ecommerce store. When you checkout your purchase with us, after confirming your shipping address and particulars, you will be brought to Paypal for the actual payment processing.
Paypal is a very secure online payment gateway and handles millions of credit card payment on a daily basis. Their unique infrastructure and security enhancement is top-notched as compared to any others. By passing your payment procedure to Paypal, we are actually providing you a much secured payment gateway for your payment and therefore will protect your credit card information from anybody, including us!
Hope this post is beneficial to you and if you have any other fear or enquiry about safe shopping experience, be it shopping with us or not, do feel free to comment below and we’ll do our utmost to help you.
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Author's Bio:ShopBug.com is a Singapore registered online webstore that sells baby products and ladies fashion. We are a commercial entity but we write posts that remain as neutral as possible, and in the event when we recommend products from our webstore, we'll try to list them separately to keep you aware. We will not be bias in our story just to sell you any products and all posts written by us are as genuine as it can be.
