What is a control purchase in an online store and what tasks does it help to solve

Anti-dumping fight and price controls

This is one of the key tasks for suppliers and manufacturers who value the reputation of their brands. The solution to this problem is divided into 3 steps:

Exposure of negligent dealers.

The standard situation is that an official supplier (manufacturer) receives an order to stop working with one or another online store due to systematic dumping, dirty competition that harms the brand's reputation and other reasons. All partners agreed, signed the relevant documents, and the very next day they discovered that the goods in the store from the black list were still successfully sold, and even at a price below the MAP/ MSRP.
Only a test purchase from this seller will help to bring out a cunning dealer who decided not to give a damn about the agreements. So that other dealers are not tempted to work with other stores from emergency situations, the violator should be punished with a hefty fine and deprive of bonuses. This will serve as a good lesson for other partners, and they will think three times before they decide to act behind your back. The violating store will have 2 options: either continue to work, but sell the goods, observing the MAP/ MSRP, or sell off the leftovers and remove positions from the store pages.

Price Control was contacted by an importer of Italian sanitary ware who faced dumping in online stores. To restore order in the market, we used tools such as price monitoring in online stores to detect all violators and test purchases to determine the channels for the receipt of goods. A test purchase in one of the online stores made it possible to identify an unscrupulous supplier and apply penalties to him. In addition, the supplier was forced to return the money for the goods purchased in this online store.

Identification of shops-switches.

It is not uncommon that in order to attract customers, an online store introduces products of a well-known brand into its assortment, and even at a very low price, although in fact it does not work with the trademark and is not going to. It doesn't matter what the pricing is. This is done in order to offer an analogue of another brand instead of the "bait" product, which supposedly has just ended. These stores are called "switches". Often, their advertising can be found on price sites, and the main goal of such unfortunate sellers is to increase traffic to their site.

Control and verification of online sellers to protect consumer rights.

In cases where the commodity producer carefully controls the MAP  and does not spare violators by imposing fines, online stores can try to outwit him. Their logic is quite simple, if you set the status of the product to “out of stock”, then the underprice is not dumping. Contacting the store with the question of “when will the product be available?” in half the cases it can be purchased now. The second trick of the stores is to provide a discount during the purchase process, and the supplier is provided with information that the buyer has made an advance payment.

Control and verification of online sellers to protect consumer rights

One of the reasons for the test purchase, in addition to the above, may be customer complaints about the poor quality of service, goods or lack of documents. Such purchases are carried out by state regulatory authorities in the field of consumer protection. Also, public organizations regularly conduct test purchases. In the course of their research, it turned out that almost every 4 online store does not provide information about the owner of the site, and 40% do not have the right to sell goods online at all.

Types of test purchases, their pros and cons

One of the reasons for the test purchase, in addition to the above, may be customer complaints about the poor quality of service, goods or lack of documents. Such purchases are carried out by state regulatory authorities in the field of consumer protection. Also, public organizations regularly conduct test purchases. In the course of their research, it turned out that almost every 4 online store does not provide information about the owner of the site, and 40% do not have the right to sell goods online at all.

Control purchase and its types, pros and cons

Depending on the goals and objectives pursued, a test purchase can be carried out in several ways: by telephone, ordering goods at a point of issue with cash on delivery, as well as ordering goods with a buyout. Let's look at each of the options in more detail.

Conditions necessary for the implementation of a successful test purchase

Not all producers will benefit from a test purchase in order to identify an unscrupulous supplier. And this is not an isolated case, even when using the search for brand representation on the Internet, it is possible to find all sites selling the customer's trademark.
The reason lies in the lack of registration of serial numbers of each unit of goods, despite the presence of a trademark in the Internet channel for more than one year. It is impossible to trace which of the suppliers this or that product has gone if it is not marked.
On each unit of goods or on the box, on the warranty card there may be a marker that will identify the offending partner. Otherwise, the test purchase will be useless.
We recommend that our customers do not put off registering the serial numbers of each item and tracking which distributor it went to.
Many companies are under the misconception that there is nothing complicated in conducting a test purchase in online stores in order to identify contraband and counterfeit products, as well as price dumping. However, after 2-3 such "promotions" it becomes impossible to continue, because. information on the network between stores is distributed very quickly: the name and contacts of buyers are blacklisted buyers.