A lot of the stores we write about are small: a single-brand Shopify shop, a gadget marketplace with a few hundred listings, a plant-delivery startup in one country. Big review platforms often have little or nothing on them. So "is this store legit?" can't be answered by pasting a star rating. This page is the checklist we use instead, and the same checklist sits behind every store review on RankerNest.
The 8 checks, in order
We run the checks in this order on purpose. The early ones are fast and catch most problems. The later ones take longer and only matter if a store passes the first few.
1. Is the review data actually about this store?
This sounds obvious, but it's the mistake we see most. Stores with similar names get mixed up all the time. When we researched Alynova (alynova.com), the Trustpilot page that kept showing up belonged to Ailinova, a different domain. If you borrow another store's reviews, the verdict is wrong before you start. So we match the exact domain on every review platform, and if nothing matches, we say the store is unrated. We don't fill the gap.
2. Can you find the returns policy from the homepage?
We start at the homepage and the contact page and look for a link to returns or refunds, the way a buyer would. If we have to guess a URL or search the site to find it, we count that against the store, even when a policy exists somewhere. A policy that customers can't find doesn't protect them much.
3. Does the policy agree with itself?
Next we read the refund page, the FAQ, the shipping page and the checkout text side by side. Different numbers for the same thing are a real warning sign. RootedBox, for example, had a refund page saying live plants must be reported within 24 hours of delivery, while its FAQ still had template text reading "We offer a [number] day return" when we checked on November 9, 2026. Leftover template text like that usually means nobody has read the policy since the store was set up.
4. Who pays return shipping, and how long does a refund take?
A "30-day return" that makes you pay to ship a heavy item overseas isn't worth much. We write down three numbers wherever the store gives them: how many days you have to report a problem, who pays return shipping, and how many days the refund takes after the store receives the item. If the store doesn't say, we write "not stated", not a guess.
5. Is there a real way to reach someone?
We note every contact route the store lists: email, phone, address, support hours. Then we check whether they make sense together. A US phone number with a business address in another country isn't a scam by itself. Plenty of small sellers work that way. But it tells you which consumer-protection rules are likely to apply, and buyers deserve to know that before they order.
6. We email them before buying
This is the check that takes the longest, and it's the one other sites usually skip. We email the store's support address the same practical questions a buyer would ask: how long you have to return a faulty item, who pays for shipping, where orders ship from. We say up front that we run a review site and might quote the answer. Then we log when we sent the email and when (or whether) they replied.
A clear answer within one or two business days is a good sign. If there's no reply after three business days, we record that as the result, because that's what a customer with a broken order would get too. Our emails don't contain links and don't promise a positive review.
7. How do you pay, and does it protect you?
We look at the payment options on the checkout page. Card payments and PayPal give you a way to dispute a charge, but bank transfers, gift cards and crypto usually don't. A store that only accepts payment methods with no buyer protection gets a lower verdict, whatever the rest looks like.
8. Do the prices and claims hold up?
Last, we compare a couple of listings against the brand's own site or other big retailers, and check any specific claims ("free shipping on all orders", "ships from the US") against the shipping page. Prices far below every other seller for the same branded item are the classic sign of a store that won't deliver.
How the checks turn into a verdict
| Result | What it means | What we tell readers |
|---|---|---|
| Low risk | Policy easy to find and consistent, real contact routes, a clear email reply, card or PayPal checkout | Reasonable to order. Still keep your order confirmation. |
| Unverified | No independent review history, or one check we couldn't finish (often the email reply) | Order only with a payment method that lets you dispute a charge, and start small. |
| Caution | Policy missing from the homepage, contradicting itself, or no reply after 3 business days | Read the policy yourself before paying, or pick a store we've already checked. |
| Avoid | Payment only by methods with no buyer protection, or prices that make no sense for a branded item | We don't link to the store. |
Commission doesn't change the verdict. Some stores we review pay us a commission and some don't. A store that pays us still gets "Caution" if its policy contradicts itself. Our affiliate disclosure has the details.
Stores we've checked so far
These are the first two stores we've rechecked under this exact checklist. Both reviews are being rewritten around these results.
| Check (Nov 9, 2026) | Alynova | RootedBox |
|---|---|---|
| Review data matches the exact domain | No independent history found. Ailinova's Trustpilot is a different store | Yes: Trustpilot page for the domain, about 4/5 from only 9 reviews |
| Returns policy linked from homepage/contact | No link found | Refund page exists |
| Policy consistent with itself | Can't judge: no policy found | No: refund page says 24 hours for live plants, FAQ has unfilled "[number] day" template text |
| Refund timing stated | Not stated | 2–10 business days |
| Contact routes listed | Email, US phone; addresses listed in McAllen, Texas and Alexandria, Egypt | Two emails, Indian phone, daily 9:00–18:00 hours |
Use the checklist yourself
You don't need us to run these checks. Before ordering from a store you haven't used before:
- Search the exact domain on a review platform, not just the store name.
- Find the returns page from the homepage. If you can't, ask yourself why.
- Compare the refund page with the FAQ, and check the numbers match.
- Send one short question to support and see how long the reply takes.
- Pay by card or PayPal, never by bank transfer or gift card.
For more on judging what a store says about its own products, read how to spot a fake or incentivized review and marketing claims vs. product facts. For how we research the products themselves, see how we research and rank products.