Google begins ‘Trusted Stores’ rollout: What it is and how your e-commerce store can get the tick

A scheme to rank Australian e-commerce sites has launched with four online businesses given a ‘Google Trusted Stores’ tick.

Google will offer buyers purchase protection on items sold from trusted stores, which covers selected items up to $1000 in exchange for opting in to the scheme, which means Google is shown purchase details.

Trusted stores are ranked on customer satisfaction and successful deliveries, and are expected to maintain a high rank of nearly 100% in a combination of these metrics.

By holding their mouse over the trusted store icon which appears on e-commerce websites, consumers can see a summary of the store’s performance on shipping reliably and their customer service.

Australian online furniture store Milan Direct is one of the four companies chosen to get the tick.

Smart50 winner Dean Ramler of Milan Direct said he was “really excited” about the scheme, and had been working with Google for three to four months to integrate their ordering and delivery data with Google’s monitoring system.

“At the end of the day it’s going to provide Australian consumers with confidence shopping online,” he said.

A blog post on Econsultancy.com by Charity Stebbins argued that gaining the Google tick would provide stores with benefits now, but when the ticks are more widespread in future they may not hold the same value.

“In that scenario, the badge will be about as distinguishing as gold stars for participation in elementary school,” she said.

Google plans to open the Trusted Stores system to more companies early next year. For now, it’s put up a form where companies can register their interest.