To find out how Panoplaza works, read on.

Why subject yourself to the gruelling ordeal of heaving department store aisles and long queues at the tills when you can visit a shop from the comfort of your own sofa?

A workable solution for this scenario has been developed by Panoplaza in Japan. With the aid of panoramic images, a complete shop can be made available online to the user. The customer can move around within it (comparable to Google Street View) head for display units or shelves, call up product information and, of course, order goods online with the click of a button.

It is true that Panoplaza has, as yet, had no impact on retail. But it’s equally true to say that some very interesting scenarios for its future use can be imagined.

1. Online retailers could set up their own showrooms and present merchandise in them. And it would make make no difference at all whether the showroom was in an A, B or C location. A factory building would basically do. An additional benefit would be a potential reduction in staffing and real estate costs for the retailer.  In this way, virtual pop-up stores could spring up from nowhere without major expense.
2. Online merchants would be able to transfer goods presentation strategies onto the internet from bricks-and-mortar retail outlets.  When visiting a virtual showroom, the user would be systematically led through the ranges, just like in real life. The showroom could, for instance, be set up in aisles for maximum convenience, as in the familiar supermarket layout, or designed with generously proportioned display islands to offer a relaxed and pleasant shopping experience.
3. The ability to integrate live images from the shop instead of static panoramic views would open the door to virtual customer service in real time. The in-house sales staff would be equipped with headsets and tablet PCs. If the customer had a question about a particular product, he would be able to communicate his need for advice from his own home. The next available salesperson would be led to the product being looked at by the customer on his home PC. The sales person would be connected with the customer via live chat and could give him advice.

Trusted Shops now rolls out its activities in UK

Trusted Shops has worked successfully for more than 10 years in the fields of online retailing and consumer protection. The company offers services for internet retailers to create trust in their business. Trusted Shops services help online shoppers to choose trustworthy shops and also increases conversion rates and sales significantly.

Along with this third party approval, it’s good for business to have trust created by word of mouth through other consumers who have already used the retailer. Therefore Trusted Shops offers in all its packages a customer rating and review tool which allows the retailer to collect and analyse customer’s feedback and display it on its homepage.

Free entry to Trusted Shops customer ratings

Retailers can choose between three packages that best fit their needs. The start package is the ideal entry package for merchants who want to learn how to increase trust and credibility. It includes unlimited customer reviews.

Spread word of mouth with customer reviews

The Trusted Shops Pro package is ideal for merchants who want to spread word of mouth with the customer reviews and rating. The customer reviews and rating can be embedded into the Online Shop visible for each potential customer. With the compliance manual and modules retailers get useful insights into legal compliance in additional.

Boost the conversion rate and sales

Ideal for merchants who want to boost conversion rate and sales with the full range of trust solutions is the Trusted Shops premium package. It offers not only customer reviews and rating. Retailers benefit also from the Trusted Shops legal compliance audit and seal of approval as well as the money back guarantee for shoppers.

“Safe web shopping has various components”, says Jean-Marc Noël, founder and CEO of Trusted Shops. “Other than on the high street the consumer can not look closely at the retailer’s business and does not know if he can trust in it. Trusted Shops therefore has a close look at the shop – with a team of lawyers we check if privacy, terms and conditions as well as secure payment procedures are compliant with consumer protection rights.”

Read more about the Trusted Shops packages.

“The national law is transferred from the same EU regulations in UK as in Germany but we felt that in daily business online retailers have different needs,” says Dr. Carsten Föhlisch, Head of the Legal Department Trusted Shops Cologne. “Therefore we decided that getting UK law offices involved and to adopt the text modules we provide to retailers to the UK market. We do not only provide a code of conduct – our legal audit involves a thorough check of all legal matters in an online shop. Starting from the imprint, the terms and conditions, the privacy throughout the whole order process our team makes sure that consumers data is being treated secure.”

Online customer reviews and ratings have a significant influence on the shopping behaviour of consumers buying online.

According to the Deloitte study more than half of all U.S. consumers and 69% of Millennials say that reviews and ratings by other consumers influence their buying decisions more than any other type of online advertising. As a result of the study 51% of the respondents said they had purchased products based on an online recommendation, and 24% said they would like to have an online service that recommends products based on consumers’ recommendations.

An ecommerce persuasion poll, carried out by user experience consultancy, Webcredible, revealed that almost one third (28 per cent) of online shoppers are most likely to be persuaded to make an online purchase by the reputation of the retailer.

Only 50 % of the eretailers use customer reviews

Still, though, only 50% of online retailers use customer reviews on their sites, according to Forrester Research. Those who don’t likely fear what their customers might say. They shouldn’t, according to Forrester, which also found that 25% of online shoppers report that they are unlikely to purchase a product after reading negative reviews, and most don’t take those reviews seriously.
But there is another reason why retailers should consider integrating a system into their online-shops that gives their customers the opportunity to share their service experiences: It can increase their creditability with their customer base overall.

Honest and impartial reviews written by real people enable consumers to choose the right shop for a product or a service and to buy with more confidence.

The Trusted Shops buyer feedback service

In addition to the well known trustmark Trusted Shops is offering a review and rating service where online buyers can provide feedback on transactions, rate online shops in a structured way and leave comments, provided they registered for a Trusted Shops guarantee at checkout.

Shopkeepers can use these unbiased buyer feedbacks to learn what customers liked and disliked, identify potential issues and use these insights to improve the shopping experience.

Click here to learn more about the Buyer Feedbacks by Trusted Shops.