Online Shopping
Ready-to-Use Resource
www.consumerclassroom.eu
Welcome to the Online Shopping Ready-to-Use Resource by
Consumer Classroom.
The objective of this Kit is to provide you with pedagogical resources and interactive tools
to use when teaching your students about this topic. The Kit covers many areas of online
shopping including:
• The best practices for Online Shopping
• How to make a complaint online
• The barriers consumers face when online shopping: Geo-Blocking
We also share with you the 2014 Inter-School Competition entries which are based on the theme
of Online Shopping. These project entries include fun videos, interactive presentations and
colorful infographics created by the project teams for you to use in your own classroom!
We hope that you find this Kit useful and that you enjoy educating your students on how to stay
safe online!
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Best Practices for Online Shopping
Learning Kits & Images to teach your students about shopping
online
Teach your students the best practices for shopping online through the learning kits available
on the Consumer Classroom website (linked below).
The learning kits and images provided below are visually structured and perfectly suited to
teach students aged between 12-15 years / 16-18 years old.
Internet Shopping terms and
conditions
Internet Shopping
Access the resource here
Access the resource here
Images to illustrate your lessons
Access the image here
Access the image here
Access the image here
Click here to find more images to illustrate your lessons
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How to Make a Complaint Online
Factsheet on “How to Make a Complaint”
Teaching Consumer education involves discussing the important ‘Online shopping’ theme.
Indeed, it is very useful to know your rights and the procedures when shopping online in order
to avoid any unfair situation from arising.
In order to have all the necessary information on “How to make a complaint”, please find EU
focus web links below. These resources will help you quickly understand your rights and the
available procedures.
Cross-border shopping and services advice
The European Consumer Center
The ECC-Net promotes the understanding of EU consumers’ rights and assists in resolving
complaints about purchases made in another country of the network, when travelling or shopping
online.
They provide a handbook full of tips about your rights when making a cross-border travel
purchase.
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How to Make a Complaint Online
There are also pedagogical infographics available, which are very useful interactive tools for
your lesson plans.
Making a complaint at a National level
By examining how to make a complaint at a national level, you can teach your students to
quickly understand what they should do in an unfair situation.
Explore your national Consumer Protection website.
You can also visit the ‘How to make a complaint’ factsheet on our website, where we have
useful weblinks of each countries National Consumer Contact.
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Geo Blocking - barriers to online shopping
within the EU
Infographic on ‘Geo-blocking in the EU’
Geo-blocking makes it hard for online shoppers to buy from a website based in another EU country.
In 2016, the European Commission checked 10537 e-commerce websites to have a full picture of
the geo-blocking practices in the EU. The mystery shopping survey has revealed how obstacles at
different stages of online shopping prevent consumers from taking advantage of wider choice and
lower prices in the Digital Single Market.
Findings are presented in an executive summary, a full report, a factsheet and an infographic which
you can use to educate your students on Geo-Blocking in the EU.
Geo-blocking in the EU
Geo-blocking of consumers online
Results of mystery shopping carried out
by the European Commission
A barrier to better deals online
Geo-blocking makes it hard for online shoppers to buy
from a website based in another EU country.
A mystery shopping survey of websites across the
EU has revealed how obstacles at different stages
of online shopping prevent consumers from taking
advantage of wider choice and lower prices in the
Digital Single Market.
Fact sheet | May 2016
Věra Jourová
Directorate-General for
Justice and Consumers
Commissioner for Justice,
Consumers and Gender Equality
The European Commission checked 10 537 e-commerce websites to have a full picture of the geoblocking practices in the EU. The mystery shopping looked into 143 country pairs and 8 sectors of goods
and services that are most commonly purchased online in the EU, such as electronics and computer
hardware. The main findings are summarised below.
www.noshopping.com
The majority of websites do not let consumers buy from another
EU country
My basket
63%
of websites do not let shoppers buy from
another EU country. Geo-blocking by sector:
> Geo-blocking practices were identified in 63 % of all websites assessed.
Only about 1 in 3 websites allow consumers to buy from another
EU country
> Only in 37 % of all websites assessed were shoppers allowed to reach the last stage of
the online shopping process, where they successfully entered their payment card details.
Electrical household appliances
86%
Electronics & computer hardware
79%
Computer games & software
73%
Clothing, shoes & accessories
65%
Cosmetics & healthcare products
63%
Books
60%
Online reservations of offline leisure
40%
Travel services
33%
Consumers are geo-blocked at different stages of online
shopping
> When accessing the website: shoppers were re-routed to another website, directly
blocked or offered different products in 5 % of the websites overall, and most frequently
in flight bookings (13 %) and car rental (11 %).
> When registering on the website in order to place an order: shoppers were blocked in
27 % of the cases. The three most commonly requested types of personal information
during registration were e-mail address (93 %), physical address (88 %) and telephone
number (76 %).
Justice
and Consumers
Access the resource
REGISTRATION
refused here (suitable for 12-18 year olds)
The majority of online retailers (92%) require shoppers to register on their
websites in order to proceed with their online cross-border purchase.
Most commonly requested types of information:
Email address
Physical address
Telephone number
93%
88%
76%
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Inter-school Competition 2014 projects on
Online Shopping theme
Discover Online Shopping resources via Consumer Classroom
In 2014, Consumer Classroom launched the Inter-School Competition on the theme of ‘Online
Shopping’. Classes from all EU countries participated in this competition. We have listed these
projects below with additional resources for you to download and use when teaching your
students.
Shop Around the Clock
Project Description of the participants:
The Project “Shop Around the Clock“ is an Inter-school project made by students from Austria
and Lithuania. This project is designed to provide students not only with useful information
about safe shopping online, but also to teach them how to present the information creatively
using information technologies, the media and personal talents.
It can also help students understand the purchasing alternatives available to them and to help
them practice techniques for finding the best price on a product they want to buy and being safe
while shopping online.
In this project, you can find:
•
•
a professional video about the pros and cons of online shopping
•
a Prezi presentation about the project
a funky song about Online Shopping made by the students of both schools, presented in a
short music-video
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Inter-school Competition 2014 projects
on Online Shopping theme
World of Shopping Online
Project Description of the participants:
Students from Romania created a roleplay video to illustrate the situation where young people
are shopping online.
Have a look on the project on Consumer Classroom here.
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Inter-school Competition 2014 projects
on Online Shopping theme
Online shopping
Project Description of the participants:
This project shows the common issues of online shopping and illustrates the advantages and
disadvantages of online shopping and draws a conclusion.
Have a look at the project on Consumer Classroom here.
In this project, you can find:
• A prezi presentation introducing all the aspects of Online Shopping theme for
students.
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Thank You!
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How have you used it in your class? Was it helpful?
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And remember to keep visiting Consumer Classroom throughout
the school year. There you will find new resources and interactive
tools to engage your students on consumer rights.
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