Behind the scenes
«Germany’s most honest online shop» – the story behind our claim
by Martin Jungfer
You all know them. Those sugarcoated marketing pieces, bursting at the seams with superlatives, promising you the moon. Well, that’s not our thing. Instead, we deliver genuine knowledge, honest opinions and good entertainment.
«You had a good job as a radio journalist and now you’re selling vacuum cleaners?» a good friend asked me when I joined Galaxus four years ago. I had to explain myself and the vision of Galaxus over and over again. It’s not all that easy to grasp. An online shop that hires journalists? Sounds like a marketing or PR trap. Well, isn’t it, I hear you say? Here are the answers.
We firmly believe we can’t take our customers for a ride. They do, after all, read up about the product they want to buy beforehand. To find out if it suits their needs and how it fared in tests. Magazines and websites can help make a purchase decision. However, not all of them are transparent. Some of them get kickback by linking certain shops. Others are funded by advertisements from the manufacturers. We want to spare you all that. You want to buy an air fryer because that’s what all the influencers on Instagram are doing? I’ll tell you why you really don’t need one. Maybe you disagree and love your Airfryer dearly? Let me know in the comments and I’ll give the gadget a second chance. As I’m unbiased about products and test them to the best of my knowledge, you can trust me.
Not all manufacturers are happy with our editorial team. Some of them have stopped sending test devices after we gave one of their products a bad rating. In those cases, we just get one from our shop and test it anyway. Others have threatened to stop selling their product through us if we don’t rewrite our test report. However, as Galaxus has alternatives for almost all the products available, we’ve got the upper hand. Whether we get a product from the manufacturer or ourselves – we always scrutinise products and put them through their paces in everyday use rather than under unrealistic laboratory conditions.
No. To maintain our journalistic independence, we either return test products to the manufacturer, sell them as «used» at a lower price in our shop or raffle them off internally or externally. We’re not corruptible. By the way, some things break when we test them too hard.
There are many stories to tell about our products. Sometimes they’re in-your-face, sometimes more subtle. But they’re always surprising and honest. We’re here to tell you them. Be it a small hack to make your life easier, or an in-depth report with breathtaking pictures – we’ve always got something for you to discover. We also post videos on YouTube and social media. Currently, these are usually in Swiss German. What’s good to know is that all our videos are subtitled. And we’re all set to produce more videos in standard German in the future.
Our homepage will present you with a selection of articles. If you want to see the latest pieces, you’ll get them in chronological order here.
That’s what the comments field is for. You can talk to us as equals, so don’t worry about how to phrase your comment. Besides, we often use customer comments as a starting point for a follow-up story. Although we’re all experts in our field, we’re not allknowing. If you don’t want to leave a comment that’s visible to all, you can always send us an e-mail. Our e-mail addresses are firstname.lastname@galaxus.de.
With pleasure! How about a review of the Sonos Ray soundbar described as «the ultimate gateway drug» by the author? If you plan on lighting a small fire in your backyard before kicking back in front of the TV, you’ve probably wondered why the smoke always aims for your eyes... Carolin has an answer for that. But maybe you only have a modest balcony, on which lighting fires is prohibited. Then Pia has recommendations for beautiful and practical outdoor lights for you.
The whole editorial team hopes you enjoy discovering and browsing the magazine and our site. And if you’re wondering why we’re honest, my boss answered that in a separate article.
When I flew the family nest over 15 years ago, I suddenly had to cook for myself. But it wasn’t long until this necessity became a virtue. Today, rattling those pots and pans is a fundamental part of my life. I’m a true foodie and devour everything from junk food to star-awarded cuisine. Literally. I eat way too fast.