The Complete Guide to Marketing in the DACH Market

The DACH region, which includes Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, is particularly notable as one of the most developed and economically stable areas globally. This development is prominently reflected in its e-commerce industry, which thrives as a direct result of the strong economy and high standards of living.

The success of online retail in the DACH region highlights the region’s technological advancement and consumer purchasing power, making it a critical market for businesses aiming to establish a presence in a prosperous and stable environment.

The acronym DACH represents three German-speaking countries in Europe: Germany (D), Austria (A), and Switzerland (CH). “D” stands for Deutschland (Germany), “A” stands for Austria, and “CH” stands for Confoederatio Helvetica (Switzerland). These neighboring countries form the largest German-speaking community in Europe, where German is the primary language for the majority of the population.

As individual nations, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland are noted for their high standards of human development, which reflect well in both social and economic measures. Collectively, they boast a population of nearly 100 million people, with Germany alone accounting for about 80 million. The average life expectancy in these countries is approximately 82.04 years, and a significant portion of their populations reside in urban areas, a trend that is particularly pronounced in Germany.

For businesses looking to expand into European markets, the DACH region represents a prime target due to its affluent consumer base and robust economic environment. Germany is often considered the wealthiest mass market in Europe. Meanwhile, the average annual purchasing power per capita is around EUR 24,000 in Germany and Austria, and a higher EUR 42,000 in Switzerland, reflecting its relatively higher cost of living.

The DACH countries also benefit from well-developed infrastructure, a highly educated workforce, and digital infrastructure that, despite some challenges, effectively connects consumers with the internet. If your business is export-oriented and considering entering European markets, the DACH region’s lucrative markets should not be overlooked.

Germans are avid internet users, spending an average of 5 hours and 26 minutes daily on online activities. Across all consumers aged 16 to 64, this amounts to a staggering 17.3 billion minutes of online engagement every day.

In terms of social media usage, a typical day sees German consumers (16 to 64 years old) collectively spend about 4.5 billion minutes on social platforms. This offers ample opportunities for businesses to connect and engage with them.

While the e-commerce markets in Switzerland, Austria, and Germany share many characteristics, each is evolving at its own unique pace. Read on to discover more about these dynamic markets!

As of recent reports, Germany is now the 6th largest market for eCommerce globally, with a predicted revenue of US$114,790.6 million by 2023. This positions it ahead of countries like India. The market is expected to continue growing, with a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.5% from 2023 to 2027, leading to an anticipated market volume of US$137,095.1 million by 2027.

In terms of market segments within German e-commerce, Fashion is the largest, accounting for 25.0% of the eCommerce revenue. This is followed by Hobby & Leisure (24.6%), Electronics (21.3%), Furniture & Homeware (9.8%), Care Products (8.2%), Grocery (6.0%), and DIY (5.2%). These figures indicate a shift in consumer preferences compared to the data from 2020, where Furniture and Appliances were the most popular categories.

Regarding the online share in the German retail market, it’s significant to note that as of the latest data, this share is 16.0% and is expected to increase to 20.5% by 2027. This growth underscores the increasing importance of e-commerce in the overall retail landscape of Germany.

Moreover, the German e-commerce market is driven by factors such as high internet penetration, increasing urbanization, and a rise in mobile shopping. Payment methods predominantly used in online stores in Germany include PayPal and credit cards, and there is a notable trend towards mobile shopping and the use of e-wallet payment methods.

It’s also important to note that the German e-commerce market is subject to regulations such as VerpackG, which affects manufacturers, distributors, or importers of packaging or packaged products, indicating a regulatory environment that e-commerce companies must navigate.

Because of its strong economy Austria is ranked 23rd in the World Bank GDP per head rankings. Nearly 5.2 million people in Austria use the internet to purchase products such as household items, clothing/sporting goods and travel.

Online retailers made up about 9,000 of Austria’s retail outlets in 2017. The number of online shops has tripled over the last ten years. The number of online shoppers from Austria has increased twice in the past decade. It is important to mention that online sales accounted for 4.3% of the total Austrian retail volume.

Austrians are most likely to shop online from abroad in Germany (65 billion USD), Italy (100.8 billion USD), China (9.1 trillion USD), China (9.1 miliarde USD), Switzerland (8.9 million USD), and the Czech Republic (6.93 Billion USD).

In 2018, Zalando and Universal were the top three most popular online stores in Austria. With its net sales of 809 million U.S. Dollars, the first one dominated the rest. The following list contains the top 10 Austrian online shops in 2018.

We Are Social research also provides interesting data. The highest growth is seen in the Food & Personal Care categories.

Despite being one of the most small European countries, Switzerland still has a significant share of European e-commerce sales. Although Switzerland is not part of the European Union, or the European Economic Area (EUA), it is still developing and finding its place on the European market.

Switzerland boasts a remarkable percentage of internet users, 95% of its population are regular internet users, and 90% have shopped online at minimum once.

In 2017, online sales in Switzerland reached 7.4 Billion Euros.

The Swiss are more likely to shop online on foreign websites than those from other DACH countries. Cross-border sales grew by 23% in 2017, despite the fact that they were up disproportionately. The top reasons to e-shop abroad include lower prices, a lack of availability on domestic platforms and a greater variety of products on foreign websites. Online shoppers from Switzerland most often buy from France, Germany, and China.

The majority of Swiss prefer to shop online for products in the following categories: multimedia, hi-fi, electric appliances, fashion and shoes.

The most popular online shops in Switzerland are Zalando, Digitec and Amazon.

There is a partial overlap between the largest online stores in DACH for each country. When we look at the top three e-commerce sites in this region, we see that most German-speaking Europeans shop at Amazon and Zalando.

It is not surprising that e-commerce has had a rapid increase in popularity. Online trading is a prerequisite for logistics and transportation. Simply put, efficient logistics networks and systems are key to online sales and delivery of purchased products. They must be continuously improved to meet the demands of e-commerce companies and their customers. The DACH region seems to be able to grasp this well.

Many online sellers choose to sell to neighboring countries and/or those that are closest to their home market in terms language and culture. The DACH region is an excellent example of this, due to its long-standing tradition with regional trade. E-retailers don’t need to make any changes to their online stores for German-speaking countries. However, they can allow for cross-border deliveries. Cross-border ecommerce is growing, which means that there’s more cooperation among e-retailers. Compared to other European regions, e-commerce is well-established in DACH.

Infrastructural investments are another way that carriers can expand their logistics networks and improve their services to handle increasing volumes of ecommerce. This includes modernizing existing facilities and building new sorting or delivery hubs. Deutsche Post DHL, for example, has spent more than EUR 775 million on capacity expansion in Germany and in building new depots and hubs in Austria and Switzerland in recent years. However, rumours suggest that Deutsche Post DHL is considering exiting the Swiss consumer parcels market. However, several carriers have increased their delivery times and delivery days to the evening, including DHL and GLS in Germany and DPD in Austria.

These constant improvements may be why DACH countries are among the most efficient delivery markets in the UE and top countries with the highest Logistics Performance Index worldwide. The World Bank’s LPI aims to rank 160 countries on the basis of their trade logistics performance. Germany was named the leader for three consecutive years (2014, 2016 and 2018), while Austria moved from 22nd place to 4th in just a few short years. Switzerland has been ranked 11th. It is an impressive score for the countries and ecommerce businesses that operate in the region.

Despite the remarkable growth in Austrian logistics, it is vital that the country keeps up with innovation. It can easily be inspired by Germany, the country that offers the best logistics solutions. It has been named the world leader in logistics innovation, technology, and services, with more than 3 million employees in the industry. 60,000 companies (including renowned Deutsche Post DHL, DB Schenker and Dachser).

It’s no surprise that German consumers receive 24 shipments per year more packages than any other European citizen. However, the number of parcels sent to Austria and Switzerland is still very low, with only 14 and 9 per capita, respectively. The new E-Commerce Shipping Study 2018 revealed that German online retailers do not care about customers after they place an order online. Customers are rarely given the option to select the shipping service that best suits their needs and when they want it to be delivered. Only 10% of the retailers that were examined gave an exact delivery date. The rest left their customers in the dark.

The German market is very particular when it comes to returning parcels. Online shoppers send the items back on average every 10th order. 14% return more than 25% of their online orders. Nearly 280 million parcels were returned in Germany to online shops that sent them in 2018. Particularly high returns rates are seen for clothing products. Despite this, the fact that the largest consumer in Europe is still Germany, and have the highest purchasing power, doesn’t change. It is worth not only entering the DACH region’s e-commerce marketplace, but also paying close attention to the delivery experience and returning options.

Zalando is a shining example of such efforts. It recently partnered up with Swiss Post and notime to allow selected customers in the Zurich region to receive their orders that night. This is a result of Zalando’s expansion of same-evening delivery to Germany, which is now available in over 20 German cities. It’s just one of many steps the company has taken to improve delivery services. Zalando is actually working on pilot projects that will further adapt the services to customers’ lives.

E-commerce is all about payment preferences. They may differ significantly from one country to the next. To fully understand DACH customers, you need to dig deeper.

German e-commerce prefers open invoices, in contrast to English-speaking English-speaking countries that are heavily dominated by cards. This is a great option for buyers, since they don’t have to pay upfront. The order is shipped and the customer has the opportunity to try it out. They can then return the goods or pay within the agreed time, which is usually between 2 to 4 weeks.

According to studies, almost 80% German customers prefer to pay by invoice. Open invoices are available by more than 90% of ecommerce merchants. This means that the buyer does not need to provide any sensitive information (such as credit card numbers), making the ordering process faster. The convenience is loved by consumers and they aren’t afraid to try new options. 41% of German shoppers prefer to make partial payments, so they are more open to paying on account.

It is a risky venture, but it seems to be.

It could be. It might be. Fraud can also be a possibility, since receipts are issued prior to payment.

PayPal is used by almost three quarters of people in the DACH region. PayPal and other e-wallet options like PayPal will eventually surpass bank transfers.

What is the reason for this?

Germany is Europe’s third largest mobile commerce market. Smartphones are rapidly growing in popularity, as well as e-wallets like PayPal, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. Despite German customs, mobile shopping requires instant payments. This is why e-wallets are becoming more popular.

Third party bank transfers, although less well-known than PayPal and open invoices, are a major player in the German market. SOFORT and Giropay are the most popular.

16% of all German online transactions are made using Giropay, an online bank transfer service. It appears at the last stage of payment and asks for bank details, including account number, authentication code, and then returns to merchant’s website. SOFORT operates in a similar manner to Giropay but with one important difference – it does not share customer sensitive data with any third parties. Buyers who are especially cautious about online security might find this problematic.

These methods do not require a credit card. However, the payments are not instant and may take several days to be processed.

Did you know that 25% of Germans do not have a credit card. As only 10% of online transactions are made with credit and debit cards, they aren’t very popular. This is evident in many retail outlets, such as German IKEA which accepted credit cards in 2016. Although it might seem difficult to believe, many brick-and-mortar stores in Germany still accept cash. Around 80% of transactions in Germany (not just ecommerce) are made in cash, even if it involves large sums of money.

Cross-border transfers can be made easier by the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). It aims to make international payments comparable to domestic ones. Direct debit payments in Germany are only used for 5% of online orders.

Card payments are much more popular in Austria and Switzerland than they are in Germany. 39% of Austrians prefer to pay by credit card. Bank transfers remain popular at 35%, while e-wallet is third at 16%.

On the other hand, the Swiss pay mostly with PayPal (43%) and a credit card (40%), and cash on delivery (39%).

SOFORT is a popular choice when it comes to service providers. It’s also very common in Austria and Switzerland.

Being one of Europe’s driving economic forces, it might be clever to start reaching out to Germany first. Its economy represents 4.54 % of the global economy and alongside the UK and France, Germany is the main player in the European market. Furthermore, it is the biggest country in terms of area and population as we’ve already seen.

Even though there are many online shops with large revenues in the DACH region, German-speaking customers still shop at foreign stores. This is why there are still opportunities for new players in this market. Here are the top aspects of the DACH e-commerce market.

German customers are very concerned about quality and security. To attract customers, use certificates, testimonials, badges, and badges on your website. This includes security and payment methods as well as product recommendations. International retailers might also consider localized websites by changing the domain name (.de.ch.,.at)

You can also consider these certificates. They are Europe’s most recognizable e-commerce trustmarks. Shops that are certified meet strict quality standards, provide financial risk protection for their customers with the money back guarantee and protect personal data.

EHI Siegel inspects online shops annually on the basis 200 criteria. The shop will receive the EHI Certified Online Shop seal if it is successful. An open fee structure ensures fair certification for your online shop. There are seven price categories and no hidden fees.

A unique platform that allows consumers to share their verified experiences with one another. eKomi has a vast Customer Feedback Management team that personally reviews every review, 24 hours a day, for its clients.

You should also consider localized website domains, preferred payment and delivery methods, and local return addresses.

It is important to remember that the German language is an asset in DACH. This is more than you might have imagined. Although Berlin is an international melting pot, it is normal to speak other languages. However, in other parts of Germany and DACH, the lack of German language knowledge can lead to a loss of potential leads and deals.
Another benefit of knowing German is that the chance of misunderstandings dramatically drops. Although many Germans are fluent in English and can use it in business, some legal or technical terms may prove to be confusing. This could lead to many problems. You should also not assume that everyone in the area speaks English fluently. If you have to conduct a meeting or phone call in English, it is important to avoid using slang and complex sentences.

You may notice a slight hesitation in some German regions to speak languages other than German. Or you might be offered a better deal if you speak German.

The first contact should be made in German. This will prove that you are fluent enough to close the deal. You must be able to read, write, and speak German fluently if you want to conquer the DACH region.

Doing business in Germany isn’t an easy task. It is important to consider the local references and that even one small error can affect your ability to expand. Germans don’t like to talk about nothing and small business talks are not their cup of tea. Prepare for any meeting with a complete set of concise, detailed data. Your chances of success are ruined by any “I don’t know”. Your chances of success are higher if you can lead the meeting in German. Similar approaches can be found in Austria and Switzerland.

German shoppers have seven payment options to choose from. Although paying by account is a popular method of payment, not all online shops offer this option. What are the alternatives?

As of 2020, the 7 most popular payment methods in Germany were as follows:

41,3% – invoice payments
32% – PayPal
8,7% – debit card
8,5% – credit card
3,4% – Amazon Payments
3,2% – SOFORT

Even though Germans love their open invoices, you can see a certain trend emerging. According to Statista’s recent survey, PayPal has already surpassed payments on account.

Don’t want your customers to drop out at the checkout? Make sure to offer payments on account, by PayPal, credit/debit card, SOFORT and cash on delivery. This way, you can satisfy the vast majority of customers in the DACH region.

For German customers, it is one of the crucial aspects. 83% of online shoppers would choose one store over another depending on the delivery experience. Prepare a wide choice of delivery methods and options. On the one hand more than half of the German online shoppers expect free delivery. On the other hand, fast delivery time is in demand according to 25% of customers. Shoppers also like to track their packages, as well as pick the delivery time.

87% of German shoppers choose home delivery, but they become more and more open to other delivery methods, such as click & collect, delivery to pickup-up points.

Doing business in Germany isn’t an easy task. It is important to consider the local references and that even one small error can affect your ability to expand. Germans don’t like to talk about nothing and small business talks are not their cup of tea. Prepare for any meeting with a complete set of concise, detailed data. Your chances of success are ruined by any “I don’t know”. Your chances of success are higher if you can lead the meeting in German. Similar approaches can be found in Austria and Switzerland.

Recent research has indicated that there are in excess of four billion internet searches per month in Germany. Of these thirty-seven per cent were one-word searches, thirty-two per cent two words and twenty-five per cent were three or four word searches. As is the case in other countries, search terms are becoming increasingly descriptive and detailed. Long-tail keywords, therefore, are a very effective way to produce SEO results.

Around half of all online searches in Germany concern local information and entertainment options. Not far behind, at forty-five per cent of searches, is a category described as society, computers and electronics. The third most popular search term is travel, which comprises thirty-three per cent of internet searches in Germany.

Not surprisingly Google is Germany’s most popular search engine with a ninety per cent market share. The remainder is divided between Yahoo, gmx.de, web.de and T-Online.

Germans favour online content that is very descriptive and prefer it to have a local rather than a global flavour. Indeed, German consumers are very loyal to their own manufacturers and prefer to buy German-made goods. In this regard they are similar to Japanese customers, who also favour indigenous companies.

Recommended SEO tactics in Germany are not that different to those one would use elsewhere. However, it pays dividends to use German hosting and a German ccTLD. Link building in Germany is quite challenging and German webmasters rarely accede to direct requests to exchange links. The best tactic is to build links organically by concentrating on building a site that German users enjoy and will link to by choice. Other approaches include using online PR and investigating relevant German directories.

When it comes to keyword strategy, directly translating from English into German doesn’t work well. As with all international marketing campaigns, localising SEO tags and descriptions is essential.

On a more technical side, make sure that you are using hreflang attributes (a tag which tells the search engine which language you are using on a specific page) to ensure that content is not duplicated. Without using this attribute correctly, your pages will lose credence in the search rankings and you will struggle to get a healthy level of organic web traffic. Hreflang should be used on all pages that have a language variation. Canonical link elements (a tool for showing search engines which version of a URL is the dominant one, to avoid duplicate content issues ) could also be used to avoid duplications, but should not be used simultaneously with hreflang, as Google recommends not using rel=”canonical” across country or language versions of your site.

A typical client portfolio for a German SEO consultancy comprises twenty-six to fifty small to medium firms. Each consultancy generally has two to ten employees.

SEO pricing structures are usually based on either an hourly rate or a project fee. Hourly rates come in at $100 to $200 while a typical project would be charged at $2,501 to $5,000 dollars. Monthly retainer fees are generally in the region of $1000 to $2000.

It’s easy to spot foreigners at a German spa. They are the ones who keep their towels, despite the fact that local rules state that they must not wear shoes or use towels. Germans are more comfortable in their buffs than the rest of the world, not only in the spa. Germans can be found relaxing on the lakeshore or working in the park after work. North Americans refer to their “private parts” as a child, but Germans don’t see anything private in what everyone has.

However, when it comes to personal data, such as name, address, friends offline and online, purchases, emails, etc., Germans are known for being incredibly indiscreet while Americans are, from the German perspective, shockingly indiscreet. The ministry of families has stickers that can be used to foil webcam spying. Google Streetview must blur many apartment buildings in Germany. Foreign internet companies looking to establish a business in Germany face many legal hurdles.

German law and German angst have developed in tandem. The first data protection law was passed in 1970 by the Hesse state. One year later a draft bill was submitted at the federal level, and in 1979, West Germany created the foundation for what was to be the Bundesdatenschutzgesetz or the Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG).

In the 1980s this law expanded in response to citizens who sued the government over a 160-question national census. The court ruled that the individuals would be easily identifiable by the data and recognized their right to “informational self-determination”, as Germany’s constitution calls it. This verdict established the individual’s right to allow or block the sharing of their personal information with any public or private entity.

As with many things, anxiety about possible surveillance stems from Germany’s past. The Gestapo, a German acronym for “secret state police”) was empowered to use any information it had to sniff out crimes against the government. This was without judicial review. East Germany expanded this surveillance to keep tabs on people it considered enemies of the state after the war. One of the most oppressive organizations in the world was the notorious Ministry for State Security (or Stasi). It had 170,000 officers at its peak, not counting their networks of informants. All files of the Stasi are now accessible to anyone who is interested. You can see everything inside, from government records to drawings of bedrooms of children provided by friends and family.

These files and memories were kept by Germany after the 1990 reunification of Germany. This was partly to prevent the state from having such surveillance capabilities in the future. As technology became ubiquitous, the public paranoia about informational self-determination moved away from the government to corporations. A Statista survey in 2020 found that 59% of Germans trust their government. They distrust the private sector.

Germans are particularly suspicious of Silicon Valley giants such as Google and Facebook. Most consumers are aware that search engines, smart phones, and websites collect data but they don’t know enough about technology to consent to the use of their personal data. Today’s BDSG version is intentionally broad in order to cover as many people as possible. German businesses must ensure that data, which is becoming increasingly important in the tech industry, is protected and stored according to the law.

However, the German public doesn’t seem to be afraid of Google and Facebook, despite the widespread anxiety. Google holds almost 92 percent market share in Germany for search engines. Nearly 39 million Germans are active users of Facebook.

Google is the most used German-language search engine, with 95% of all searches being performed in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Bing comes in at second place, with a 3% share of the search market, followed by Ecosia (a environmentally-friendly search engine that uses its ad revenue to plant trees) in third place at 0.7%.

Google Ads gives you nearly 100% reach among the german-speaking internet population. Google is by far the most popular search engine for DACH advertisers.

Social media play an important role in promoting business in Germany. While for many Facebook would be the most obvious choice, going for other platforms can be more beneficial.

However, if you are more into B2B or social selling, LinkedIn could be your choice.

The strong development of online marketplaces is said to be one of the main forces behind the evolution of e-commerce industry in DACH region. In fact, online marketplaces generate 30.62 billion EUR in sales in Germany alone and thus, are considered to be the largest distribution channel in German e-commerce nowadays.

Among all the retailers and marketplaces, there are a few companies that simply stand out: Amazon (with more than 8,8 billion EUR worth of online sales in Germany), Otto (2,9 billion EUR) and Zalando (1.2 billion EUR). The fact that Amazon takes the lead shouldn’t be surprising: after all, Germany is Amazon’s second-largest market after the US. Even though it’s available only in Germany, the website Amazon.de is also often visited in Austria, and it’s quite popular in Switzerland as well. A few years back, there were even some announcements about the expected launch of Amazon in Switzerland, but not much seems to have happened since then.

Speaking of the most popular sites in terms of web traffic in Germany, however, there’s one other marketplace that can easily compete with Amazon – eBay. It might not be as popular in other German-speaking countries, but has dedicated websites for Austrian and Swiss customers nonetheless. Still, there are a few more “local” marketplaces which are worth taking into account if you’re thinking of expanding your business. For example: Real.de (formerly known as Hitmeister), Hood.de, Yatego.de.

Since marketplaces are quite popular in DACH region, customers tend to compare prices on several different platforms as well. Actually, there’s a range of price comparison websites that are quite popular, including Idealo.de, Billiger.de. Preis.de, Shopping24.de, Guenstiger.de or Geizhals.at.

As can be seen, there’s a lot of platforms and price comparison sites that you can use to your advantage. By listing your products on at least a few of such portals, you can increase the visibility of your e-commerce business and reach more potential customers in the long run. It’s important to choose wisely and get familiar with the terms & conditions of every platform, though.

German law is also quite unusual and can get complicated, especially in the e-commerce market.

Any business that intends to address possible e-commerce customers in Germany needs to take German law into consideration. There are some areas where legal regulations are harmonized within the European Union, but there are still plenty of differences in national German law that businesses must know about. Before entering the e-commerce market, it’s a good idea to get legal advice. In general, e-commerce law requires the fulfillment of specific duties by the business to its customers.

Some duties may include the following:

• The business must acknowledge receipt of the order and provide confirmation of the contract conclusion.
  The offer must include the necessary steps to conclude the agreement and the technical means to review and correct the order by customer.
• The seller must provide the consumer with all the information in a durable medium at the time of delivery at the latest – this is typically done through email.
• The offer must include certain information, such as the main characteristics of the product or service, prices inclusive of all taxes, delivery period, sellers’ contact details, means of payment accepted, applicable warranties, as well as the conditions and time limit and procedures for exercising the right of withdrawal. In specific cases, further information may be required (for example, in the case of digital goods).
• These requirements might vary under German law depending on whether the contract is concluded with business or consumer customers.

There aren’t really any limitations in relation to electronic contracts, however some contracts require specific formalities which can’t be met online, this includes notarisation in case of the sale of shares or real estates. E-signature is also recognised under German law. You can check some good options here – don’t be afraid of leveraging electronic signatures.

When it comes to personal data online, the collection and use is regulated by the GDPR and the German Data Protection Act. The GDPR applies to the processing of personal data in the context of activities of an establishment of a controller/processor in the EU – the place in which the process takes place has no meaning. The GDPR also prohibits the collection and use of personal data unless it is permitted by statutory law or the data subject has consented to it.

Common mistakes in e-commerce include companies often failing to inform consumers appropriately – for instance concerning their right of withdrawal. Other most common mistakes include incorrect information on the imprint, the use of unfair terms and conditions, pricing, shipping costs, missing information about product labeling and Online Dispute systems. Companies often violate copyrights and trademarks as well.

Being informed is crucial. The most important thing you can do is get all legal texts that are relevant and necessary for the e-commerce shop. Around 80-90% of the mistakes companies make are usually part of the legal texts. It’s also important to get an audit of the online shop. This means checking advertising messages, product labelling, product descriptions, etc.