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Businesses operating online need to communicate that they are
trustworthy in order to have a relationship with customers. Building
trust is especially important when companies are selling
products online.
Today, we're looking at how websites selling fake Rolex watches attempt
to establish themselves as trustworthy through their websites. This
niche of replica watches is particularly interesting because some
websites selling fake Rolex's actually manage to overcome the initial
barrier of selling a questionable product and appear to be trustworthy!
How do these websites do it? Read on...
Buying fake Rolex watches online
I was surprised to learn that there are hundreds of websites selling fake Rolex watches over the internet. The quality of these websites range from poor to actually pretty good.
Understanding how customers think
Entering into the mindset of the customer, we can try to understand how a potential customer thinks... The fake Rolex market is a powerful example of how despite having a product which is dodgy, by using several approaches, replica watch websites selling brands like Rolex have been able to encourage customers to trust their businesses.
How fake Rolex websites communicate they are trustworthy
In scouring the web for examples of websites selling fake Rolexes, I came across a number of techniques being used to build trust. I didn't find one particular website using all of the methods outlined below, however these 'trust builders' were present on a number of different websites:
- Good looking and professional website - No broken links, no careless spelling mistakes. Great first impressions.
- Phone number and email address displayed on every page - Some websites even had free-phone numbers open 24 hours a day.
- Upfront pricing - Prices shown are prices paid. Having free delivery makes pricing even more transparent.
- Shipping methods - Next day delivery and particularly payment on delivery are effective ways of building trust in the product.
- Photos and videos of actual products - Because of the nature of fake Rolex watches this is particularly important in this sector. This website is an example of a website using images and videos to sell their watches. Searching google for sevenwatch.com you can see they have their videos indexed on more-a-less every video sharing site around!
- Evidence of secure payment - SSL, "Secured by thawte" and "McAfee Hacker Safe" logos all communicate the website can be trusted for taking payment.
- Use of familiar and trustworthy logos - Use of logos like Visa, Amex, Fedex, DHL and USPS subliminally help the user trust the website.
- Testimonials/Product reviews - From a customer's point of view, onsite testimonials are difficult to really trust. Nevertheless, lots of fake watch websites have customer testimonials, or the ability to rate each watch (example). If testimonials are on other websites, the testimonials carry a lot more weight. (This has led to some fake Rolex websites creating their own "independent" fake Rolex review websites! "Oh what a tangled web we weave...")
- Professional, regularly updated blog - This is a great way to keep content updated and show users that the website is still maintained and that the business up to date with watch industry news. (This site does this well)
- High prices - This is cunning and very worrying, but some websites are able to persuade their customers that they produce "top end fakes" by simply charging more! In reality this might mean a customer pays $1000 for something which costs $100 elsewhere. This may seem strange, but a premium priced product is one of the most convincing ways, if used in conjunction with the above points, to persuade users the fake watches are of highest quality.
Reason to be concerned?
I hope this post has demonstrated that using the above 'trust builders', a website selling fake Rolex watches can effectively persuade a user that they are offering a service which can be trusted.
It's worth saying that anyone choosing to buy a fake rolex takes a risk. Why? They run the risk of getting ripped off by a dishonest company that doesn't ship products or customs blocking the delivery. Essentially though, if users can find evidence of good customer service and evidence that they ship watches (e.g. SevenWatch and PureTimeWatch) on external sites they reduce the risk of falling for a scam.
Conclusion
Eoghan Mccabe says that building trust online comes down to honesty and transparency. I would argue that the cornerstone to building trust online is having a product which can be trusted. This article shows that it isn't too difficult to create a website which looks trustworthy, but the key is actually selling a product which can be trusted. Fake Rolex websites will always have the stigma of selling fake products!
If your business sells trustworthy products, keep a look out for our trust-builders checklist which we will be making available soon.
Feedback
How do you think businesses operating online can communicate trust?
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July 10, 2008
Votes: +0