Online shopping in Switzerland: tips and information

Check whether you really want to buy this particular product.

• Is it perhaps an impulse purchase? Or have you often thought about making this purchase?

• Will you use the item often enough to justify the purchase?

• If a promotion is currently taking place: would you buy the item without a discount?

• What is your budget for the item? Stick to it even if you come across tempting offers.

Check the product information before buying. Don’t buy anything that doesn’t meet your expectations.

Compare the prices on different sites. This way, you can see whether the product is available at a lower price in another shop.

You can also view the prices on different devices. In some cases, prices on smartphones are higher than in a PC browser. The reason for this is that customers on their mobile phones are often under more time pressure.

However, when you find a cheap shop, make sure the product is an original. If the price is too good, it might be a fake.

When you include shipping costs, the cost of a product may be higher than expected. You should also consider the shipping costs when comparing prices.

In the case of goods from abroad, the courier’s customs and handling fees may be added on top. Take this extra cost into account. In these cases, it may be cheaper to order within Switzerland.

When ordering electronic goods from abroad, plugs often have a different shape to the sockets in Switzerland. So you may also need to buy an adapter. Check the adapter prices before buying foreign products. This ensures that you don’t end up paying more money than when ordering within Switzerland.

Customer reviews give you an insight into the quality of products. You’ll also learn about the reliability of a provider if you order from a marketplace such as Amazon.

When it comes to product reviews, keep the following in mind:

• Don’t just read the positive reviews. Even the negative reviews can give you information about the product. This will allow you to make the right decision for you.

• Start with the latest reviews. Ideally, this will give you information about the latest state of the product.

• Look for recurring themes. This allows you to identify common pros and cons.

• Read the reviews on different sites. This will give you a more comprehensive picture of the product.

How to spot fake reviews

Product reviews can give you clues about the product. But you can often find fake reviews online. Here’s how to spot them:

• For products with lots of 5-star ratings, you should take a closer look at the reviews. In the case of real reviews, there is usually a certain proportion of average and negative feedback.

• If a product has received many new reviews in a short period of time, this is an indication of fake reviews. This also applies to many reviews shortly after a product launch. Exceptions can be very well-known products such as iPhones.

• You can also recognize purchased reviews by the writing style, among other things. For example, the wording may be awkward or sound unnatural. Other reviews may have poor grammar because they have been translated online, for example. Promotional language with many superlatives is also a warning sign.

• Look at the profile of the author. If the person has written many very positive or very negative reviews in a short period of time, this may suggest the reviews are fake.

Good to know: there are not only fake reviews that make a product look better. Some dubious companies also write or buy negative reviews for a competitor product. You can recognize these kinds of negative reviews, for example, by the fact that they contain advertising for other products.

Check if it is a real site. In the worst case, you could lose a lot of money – and be left without a product. How to spot fake shops:

• URL spelling: some fraudulent sites take advantage of typos and redirect you to another site. Before completing the order, check the URL. In some cases, fraudsters also take advantage of the fact that letters look similar – such as the big “i” and the small “L”. Also pay attention to the little things.

• Encrypted connection: trusted shops encrypt data. You can tell by the URL: if it says “https” at the beginning, your data is encrypted. If the “s” is missing, there’s no encryption.

• Spelling: texts with many grammatical errors and bad spelling can be an indication of a fraudulent shop.

• Legal notice: the legal notice should contain information about the company, for example the address. This also includes registration information in the country of the company’s registered office. In Switzerland, you can check the company using the Central Business Name Index, for example.

• Shopping apps: only use the apps from the official app store of your smartphone. Apps from other sources increase the risk of fraud.

• Fake quality labels: fraudulent online shops sometimes use fake labels to build trust. If in doubt, visit the label website. There you can often check which shops have received the label. Even a click on the label will give you an indication of its authenticity. That’s because: trusted shops link to the label website that shows the certificate for the shop.

Good to know: you can test shop pages for their trustworthiness at Trusted Shops. This will give you an initial indication of whether the site is safe.

Secure shops offer various payment options. However, some are more insecure than others. These payment methods are generally considered secure:

• Invoice: you only pay the invoice after you have received the goods. This way, you can first check whether everything is in order with the product.

• Digital payment methods: these include Paypal, Twint, Google Pay and Apple Pay.

• Debit cards and credit cards

Be careful with bank transfers. Don’t use money transfer providers such as Western Union – they are often used by fraudsters. You should also be careful when paying in advance.