EU Consumer Scoreboard 2025: online shoppers are 60% more likely to report problems

The European Commission’s 2025 Consumer Conditions Scoreboard reports that online shoppers are over 60% more likely to experience problems with purchases than those shopping offline. In practice, that means price, promotion, and trust signals are increasingly part of “competitive intelligence”, not just the number on the product page.

Key findings (EU, 2025 edition)

From the Commission’s Scoreboard highlights:

• Problems happen more often online: 26% of consumers who bought online experienced a problem they felt there was a legitimate reason to complain about, vs 16% for offline purchases.
• Digital “trust risks” are widespread: 45% of consumers encountered online scams in the past year.
• Manipulation signals are common: many consumers reported seeing fake reviews (66%) and misleading discounting (61%).
• Targeted advertising worries are near-universal: 93% of online shoppers express concerns about targeted advertising (e.g., personal data collection, excessive ads, unavoidable personalisation).

What this means for pricing & promo monitoring

If online shopping produces more problems, merchants react by leaning on discount framing, urgency, and review optics. That creates two concrete risks for a price-monitoring product:

1. Promo integrity risk: a competitor’s “discount” can be a messaging event, not a real price cut.
2. Signal noise risk: price changes that matter (true markdowns) get drowned out by UI tricks and frequent micro-changes.

What to track (actionable)

When you monitor competitors, capture context alongside the price:

• Discount presentation: strike-through price, “was/now” labels, % badges, countdown timers.
• Price-history signals: record “prior price” claims and date ranges when shown.
• Review context: rating count deltas, “featured reviews”, verified-buyer labels, review widgets changing.
• Checkout reality: shipping thresholds, delivery promises, and fees that change the effective price.
• Fraud/abuse indicators: sudden review spikes, aggressive urgency banners, “limited stock” messages.

Minimal checklist for Trackabl-style alerts

• Alert on meaningful price moves (threshold + cooldown).
• Separate alert types: markdown, promo badge change, shipping threshold change, review spike.
• Always store a snapshot of the surrounding offer context (not only the number).