IDIS Gold Standard
Retailer accreditation
Eligibility
Any e-retailer may apply for IDIS Gold accreditation. It is not a requirement to be a full IMRG member, but applicants are required to be accredited already to IMRG's ISIS (Internet Shopping Is Safe) standard. ISIS is IMRG's established trust scheme, and encompasses a wide range of aspects of online trading including the IDIS charter. If you are not already ISIS-accredited and would like more information, please click here.
Accreditation fee
ISIS-only members are charged £125 per annum for IDIS Gold accreditation, which is additional to the standard ISIS accreditation fee. This further fee supports the maintenance and development of this much enhanced scheme, and funds the periodic reviews necessary to maintain the integrity of the Gold Standard. The fee is waived for full IMRG members.
Applying for accreditation
E-retailers can check their delivery offering against the individual Gold Standard benchmarks using the Online Assessment Calculator on this website. Having confirmed that it meets the required standard, an e-retailer may apply for IDIS Gold Standard accreditation online. Accreditation entitles the retailer to display the IDIS Gold Standard logo (served by IMRG) on the website that has met the standard. If the retailer has more than one web site each will have to be accredited individually.
Scrutiny
Once an e-retailer has completed the online assessment process on this website and applied for IDIS Gold accreditation, IMRG will apply a series of checks to verify the application, and reserves the right to reject any application where the retailer's service levels do not appear to match the claims made. IMRG will endeavour to complete this scrutiny as quickly as possible.
De-listing
Should an e-retailer be granted accreditation but subsequently be found to have overstated its delivery offering, its IDIS Gold Standard will be reviewed and may be withdrawn by IMRG, along with the ability to display the icon. Any such problems will become apparent through periodic reviews (mystery shopper) by IMRG, or if IMRG receives complaints from consumers about the e-retailer's delivery performance.
Rising to the standard
If an e-retailer should fail to meet any part of the IDIS Gold Standard, the Online Assessment Calculator identifies the area for improvement and references the IDIS Gold Standard Guide and Solutions Directory (supplier guide) to help the e-retailer produce an acceptable solution to the issue.