What's required from a responsible retailer?

Branding and merchandising is at the heart of every manufacturers' marketing and sales strategy, and protection of their brand image must be a priority.  Responsible retailers therefore respect a brand and its place in the market. Products will be priced, marketed and displayed appropriate to  corporate guidelines and in ways that are designed to maximise sales but at the same time reflect and retain brand values.

Customer care is incredibly important not only closing sales, ensuring satisfaction and encouraging return business. It's essential that customer facing staff have a thorough knowledge of any product range for which they have responsibility and are trained to recognised levels of competence, with the ability to communicate easily and effectively.

For online retailers customer care would be in the form of a helpline which is contactable at all reasonable hours by various methods e.g. phone, email, post. Any response should be within 24 hours of the initial contact.

All information on a retailer's website needs information that is 100% reliable.  This avoids queries, returns, bad feeling while at the same time builds customer confidence in the website and what it is selling. So product descriptions, specifications, pricing, contact information, list of stores and locations, hours of business, delivery details and T&Cs should all be current and correct.