Ecommerce Europe have announced that they will launch a European trust mark within 6 months. The goal is to give consumers confidence in cross border e-commerce.
“If it makes the cake bigger, it is a good idea” is the correct answer to the question.
If the total volume of online commerce don’t increase because of a pan-european trust mark, we will only have the two negative consequences (seen from the web shops point of view):
1. Prices will go down. The trust mark will secure our consumer rights when we shop international. We don’t have to worry about delivery security and payment risks, which will drive us to the shop with the lowest prices.
2. Delivery cost will go up. If the consumers increase their number of international purchases, the average delivery distance of packages will go up and so will the cost for the web shops.
No doubt that the total volume will increase, but we don’t see the trust mark as the key driver here.