Russia-based Avito has launched a campaign to promote its marketplaces as a secure and safe place to shop. The campaign, which is called “Buy with confidence,” is based on users’ personal stories of how Avito’s transaction protection technologies have helped them while buying or selling goods on its marketplaces. Customer video stories are complemented by Avito staff explaining how its safe shopping technologies work “under the hood.”
Stories of successful purchases are shown through the prism of the tools that allowed the users to make the transactions safely: ratings and reviews, Avito Delivery, phone number protection, online calls within the application, secure chat and others.
“Security technologies within the platform are developing very quickly, and we understand that not all users are aware of all their capabilities. We consider it important to tell them how we protect sellers and buyers on Avito, and how people can use security tools. We believe that this message can best be conveyed by those who are closest to the product: our loyal users and Avito employees who work on security every day,” said Elvira Weber, senior marketing manager for Avito security products.
According to the company, 800 security staff at Avito check the particulars of 10,000 users every day.
According to a survey of Avito users,
- 75% of respondents always look at reviews before making a decision on a transaction;
- More than a third of users have enabled Secure Login — two-factor verification — to protect their accounts;
- Almost 90% of users prefer sellers whose profiles have the “documents verified” or “particulars verified” tags;
- About 70% of sellers prefer to communicate in the internal Avito messenger — 40% of calls are made online within the application; with such calls, real phone numbers are hidden by Avito;
However, a number of Russian banks have expressed concerns that such in-app call features are increasingly being abused by fraudsters, as users lower their guard in the belief that in-app calls are 100% secure.