EMOTA represents the e-commerce sector in Europe, and has represented distance sellers for more than 30 years. Many EMOTA members and some EMOTA business partners have developed well recognised trustmarks and quality labels, often attached to consumer complaint handling mechanisms, as a competitive, added value service aimed to boost online trade. We have noticed the increasing interest in online trustmarks as a possible solution to boost the confidence of those consumers that have not shopped online yet and hesitate to do so because of fears of going away empty-handed. However, as the Commission noted in recent studies, those consumers that have made a purchase on the internet do normally not have trust issues and say they would shop again online.

Therefore we would like to encourage a dialogue around the core elements of trust online based on the experience of traders and consumers. It is our view that trustmarks figure among many elements that build the concept of “trust” in the online environment, and unfortunately, many of these elements are hard to measure, almost impossible to regulate and even harder to predict. Competition is key here. And just like in any other field, the know-how is very important. Traders learn what their consumers want, learn about the best delivery solutions, which payment methods they can offer, how their websites should be designed, how to interact with their customers, how their products should be presented etc. In other words, there is no single recipe for success, it is all about adjusting to your customers. And these are different from country to country and even region to region. It is the price which drives the search rather than other elements, and the price is influenced by many elements, including shipping, VAT, or the increased cost a trader will have to bear for the use of trustmarks or other services.