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No matter what a website sells, it should provide good value and quality, make shopping easy, deliver products on time, and have competent customer support. To see which sites best meet those expectations, we asked our readers about their experiences at 52 of the nation's largest retail sites. We also checked out many of them to see what distinguishes great shopping websites from mediocre ones and what to expect when you shop online. We found:
Readers' reasons for shopping online included gas savings, the ability to shop 24/7, the presence of models that aren't in stores, good prices, and lots of information. "Online shopping gives me the ability to do extensive research quickly, find out what actual users think, and know that I am paying a fair price for the product," said Michael Burton of San Diego.
Despite readers' overall approval, sites differed in key areas.
Quality and value. Among the standouts for value—the judgment of whether products are worth their price—and quality were B&H Photo and L.L.Bean. Scores for quality, value, and price didn't always line up. Readers said that the quality of REI's products was outstanding but that the value and prices were just OK.
Ticketmaster, 1800Flowers, and FTD had especially low marks for value. A Pennsylvania reader, Carmen Olivares, told us she was shocked at the prices and quality at FTD when she visited the site in May. Four items she initially selected totaled more than $300. "I was like, ‘Whoa, Nellie,' " she said. "The slightest little thing was 50, 60, or 70 bucks." Making matters worse was that she didn't discover the total cost until checkout, the second-biggest complaint among survey respondents. "What they don't tell you when you first log on are all the charges they tack on," she said. She ended up buying only a flowering plant. Although it arrived on time, it was much smaller than it looked on the site, she said, hadn't bloomed, and was in a cheap-looking container.
Ease of navigation. You should have no problem telling what a site sells, finding specific products and brands, and getting pages to load fast without pop-up windows, Flash videos, or other digital detritus. And you should easily find site policies, contact info for customer service, and your shopping cart. Ticketmaster and CVS received subpar marks for navigation. At the daily-deal site Groupon, we had to enter our e-mail address before proceeding, then encountered pop-up windows asking our gender, home address, and favorite types of deals, which was annoying since we just wanted to browse.
Ease of checkout. Once you've shopped, you should be able to see what you've chosen and check out with little hassle. When you check out on JCPenney and Nordstrom, for example, you're taken right to your shopping cart and can review your order. Then you can create an account or buy as a guest without setting up a password or security question. Even if you don't create an account, those sites place cookies on your computer so that items you selected remain in your shopping cart if you leave and return, a convenience. And you can see the total cost without having to check out. On 6 percent of visits, readers groused about not knowing the full cost until checkout. That was a problem for as many as one in five readers shopping at ProFlowers, FTD, and 1800Flowers.
At some sites, clicking on checkout takes you to a sign-in page, with no option to buy as a guest or review your order beforehand. Zappos earned high marks for checkout overall, yet was one of the offenders here. And during sign-in, Zappos automatically checks the box that has you opting for its weekly e-mail newsletter. (The name, "Zappos.com's weekly shameless plug," doesn't make the default checkmark less rude.)
Shipping. On 7 percent of visits, readers complained about high shipping or delivery charges, a particular problem at flower sites, where more than one in four complained. Zappos and Nordstrom don't charge extra for standard shipping when you buy or return items.
Other sites don't charge extra for shipping if purchases reach a certain threshold ($50 at REI) or for certain items (B&H Photo). Still others, such as Walmart, provide no-cost shipping if the item is sent to a local store for pickup. Target customers get shipping at no extra charge when using the store's credit or debit card.
Don't assume that "free" shipping means you're getting the lowest price for a product. And add shipping charges when comparing prices among shoping websites.
Customer support. The better sites post frequently asked questions and have e-mail notification and trackers that show the status of your order. Above all, someone in customer service should be easy to reach—by phone, e-mail, regular mail, social media, or live chat—if you have a question or a problem. Ticketmaster had the worst record; eBay, FTD, Lowe's, Office Depot, Sam's Club, and Target were among the lower scorers.
Readers also told us about other website attributes that make for a more—or less—pleasant experience:
Search function. Search for "Converse" at Nordstrom and you find 106 items with reviews. Pull-down menus at the top of the page let you narrow the choices by color, price, brand, and store availability. Living Social and Groupon, on the other hand, have no search function. At Groupon, to find a deal we had seen earlier in the day, we had to resort to using Google.
Product-comparison tools. If you've narrowed your choice to a few similar items, it's handy being able to compare them side by side, as we did with bicycles on REI, sweaters at L.L.Bean, and cameras at B&H Photo. On Amazon or other sites without such a tool, open each product page in a separate tab on your browser and compare that way.
User feedback. Sears and other sites display an overall rating and the most helpful positive and negative reviews voted on by customers. Many sites use a star system, with five for the top score.
Barbara Lawson, a reader from Colorado and a professional photographer, said Amazon has "more people who write reviews, so you get more information." (As a rule, the more ratings and reviews, the greater the chance of avoiding fraudulent reviews and getting an accurate idea of a product or service.) Amazon's product page also shows how the ratings are distributed. For example, of the 687 customer ratings for a men's electric shaver, 226 were five stars and 113 were one star. But Lawson says the reviews on B&H Photo are usually more useful because the site is used by many professional photographers. L.L.Bean and Sears let customers upload their own video reviews, a nice touch.
At the other extreme, the deal site Living Social has no user reviews or any other way for customers to provide feedback that others can use. And Groupon takes its reviews from other sites, such as Frommer's Travel Guides, TripAdvisor, and Yelp, and generally weeds out the negative ones.
Return policy. Sites should have liberal return policies, preferably beyond the 30-day limit you see from many shopping websites. And companies should be willing to replace defective products within a reasonable period even if the return policy has ended. (Of course, what's reasonable depends on the type of product. You wouldn't expect a retailer with a 60-day return policy to brush you off if a $2,000 refrigerator it sold you breaks down after 90 days.)
REI offers a 100 percent satisfaction guarantee, letting shoppers return or replace items if they ever fail to meet expectations. Zappos' return policy also stands out: You have 365 days to send back any item. (It pays for return shipping.)
Here are other factors to consider when shopping online, especially when buying from a retailer you haven't tried before:
Use a separate e-mail address. To keep spam from reaching your regular e-mail account, use a different address for online purchases. Many Internet service providers let you set up numerous e-mail accounts, which you can change any time you want, or you can obtain a free account from such sites as Google. If you don't want to receive ads and promotions, make sure that the company hasn't automatically checked boxes in which you agree to receive such materials.
See products in person. Check out big-ticket items at a local retailer to see how they look and work in the real world. You can always buy online if the walk-in store won't match the best online price. If you buy clothes online without trying them on in a store, make sure the site has a liberal return policy. Factor in any return shipping charges.
Look for gotchas. Read the site's terms and conditions, FAQs, and privacy policy. Find out what information will be collected, how long it will be kept, and what will be done with it. If a site shares data, see whether there's a way to limit it. Make sure that any boxes that have you agreeing to share aren't checked by default. If you don't understand something, ask, and try to get the answers in writing, perhaps by using and saving an online chat session with customer service.
See what others say. Some sites, such as Amazon, let customers rate retailers who sell through them. Do a Web search with the name of the site and such terms as "review" and "complaints." Read the entire company report (if there is one) at the Better Business Bureau (bbb.org) and look for at least a "B" rating.
Know warranty limits. When shopping online, you generally don't get an "implied warranty of merchantability," meaning the right to receive a product that is free of defects and lasts a reasonable length of time. An implied warranty can extend your protection beyond the product warranty and the store's return policy. Under state law, it automatically accompanies most new-product sales unless the retailer "disclaims" it—rare for walk-in stores but common for online sellers. Check the fine print. To preserve your basic warranty rights when making a major purchase, consider shopping at a walk-in store.
Use credit. Credit cards provide greater security than debit cards, allowing you to obtain a chargeback if there's a problem. Some card issuers let you create temporary account numbers to use when shopping online so that you don't have to hand over your actual card number.
Keep records. Once you buy something, expect the site to e-mail a summary of your order. Keep a copy of the order page—perhaps using a screen shot—in case you don't receive the e-mail.
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