Safe.Shop moves to unify e-commerce certification

Global trustmark Safe.Shop is rolling out an international umbrella for e-commerce certification.

In launching Safe.Shop, the Ecommerce Foundation says its aim is to help improve customer confidence while boosting e-commerce trade globally.

National e-commerce associations from 13 countries are already partners, including China, Hong Kong, Japan and Malaysia.

The foundation says there are already more than 300 e-commerce trust marks worldwide, most being solely national initiatives. Some focus explicitly on legal compliance, while others focus on financial reliability, security, reviews or anti-counterfeiting policies. And some try to cover most of these aspects.

Separate certification for national trust marks can cause complications, says the foundation, and can be especially complex for small- and medium-sized e-commerce companies. Safe.Shops aims to bridge the borders. Webshops certified by a local trust partner offer reliability and uphold consumer rights.

“We are not building a trust mark from scratch,” says Ecommerce Foundation director Jorij Abraham.

“Many national retail and e-commerce associations already have a trusted certificate. They know the local market and can serve local retailers and online stores much better than could a central organisation. Collaborating with local trust-mark partners enables us to use the strength of the local brand and to build a global trust mark together.”

Safe.Shop’s launch will take about three months as processes and systems need to be optimised.

Online stores can apply for the trust mark through their national e-commerce association or via www.safe.shop. The organisation wants to have 30 countries linked to the initiative by next year, and is negotiating with e-commerce associations in a further seven countries including South Korea.

Initiated by the Ecommerce Foundation, Safe.Shop is managed by Ecommerce Operations, a company based in The Netherlands. It creates free reports about the e-commerce market in more than 50 countries, and has set up EcommerceWiki as an online community and knowledge-sharing platform for e-commerce students, professionals and managers.