When is a horse a cow? Or more pertinently when is something not what it claims to be? This is a very topical question given the problems caused by the substitution of horse meat for beef in what appears to be any number of processed food products. Buying any product is essentially a question of trust. If you purchase a beef pie you have to assume that it’s got beef in it. Now this question of trust becomes even more significant when you purchase online. So how do you tell that your pie is made of beef when you order it over the internet. Or for that matter that the boots you ordered, when they turn up, are as described on the website? Well we have a  word for that in the online retail industry it’s called credibility and generally credibility equals reliability. How credible is the supplier that you are purchasing from? More importantly how can you check that credibility?

Can I suggest three key tests of the credibility of an online retailer.

1/ Can you actually contact the retailer other than by e-mail.? Do they have a published phone number that you can call and does someone answer it? Here's how to contact us here at Outdoor Look

2/ Are there any independent mechanisms in place to produce public customer feedback? There’s a number of these type of companies  around in the market. Here at Outdoor Look we use Feefo.  Follow the link on our home page and you can see what independently verified real customers are saying about us, our products and our service.

3/ In the unlikely event you don’t like the product you have purchased or it’s not as described how easy is it to return that item?  Most credible retailers should have something in place similar to our own “zero hassle” returns policy.

Now obviously here at Outdoor Look we meet all three of these key credibility tests. But then we are a successful and credible online retailer. These tests should be applied to any online retailer. Of course there are some credible (and very large) online retailers that don’t for instance have an easily found contact number, however at least two of the 3 key tests above should be in place before you place your valuable business with any online retailer.