Consumer Reports Survey: B&H Photo, REI And Zappos Among Highest-Rated Online Retailers

Ticketmaster.com earned especially low marks in Ratings of 52 of the nation's largest retail sites; Seven ways to shop smart on any site

YONKERS, N.Y., Sept. 26, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Overall, shoppers are satisfied with online shopping–but some sites do a better job than others when it comes to value, customer service and more. In Consumer Reports' new survey about online shopping satisfaction, B&H Photo, REI, and Zappos were among the higher-rated sites; florists including 1800Flowers.com and FTD.com along with Ticketmaster.com earned some of the lowest scores.

The full report and online-retailer Ratings, which are based on 28,758 responses from subscribers to a survey conducted by Consumer Reports National Research center in spring 2012, is available online at www.consumerreports.org and in the November issue of Consumer Reports.

Overall, shopping sites received high marks, and survey respondents were highly satisfied with 84 percent of their purchases when visiting these online shopping sites. Despite overall approval, sites differed in key areas, including quality, value, ease of navigation, ease of checkout, shipping and customer support.

B&H Photo and REI were at the top of the chart along with Zappos.com, which earned top marks for checkout, shipping and customer support. Costco.com, Nordstrom.com, L.L.Bean.com and Newegg.com were neck and neck overall with Zappos.

Although readers rated the quality of REI's products as outstanding, they deemed the value– the judgment of whether products are worth their price– of those products just OK.  B&H Photo and L.L. Bean were standouts for both quality and value. 

On seven percent of visits to online shopping sites, readers complained about high shipping or delivery charges, a particular problem at flower sites, where more than one in four readers complained. Another common complaint among survey respondents was not discovering the total cost of shopping cart items until checkout.

Seven ways to shop smarter online

When shopping online, Consumer Reports advises consumers to consider the following, especially when buying from a retailer they haven't tried before:

• Use a separate e-mail address. To keep spam from reaching a regular e-mail account, use a different address for online purchases.
• See products in person. Check out big ticket items at a local retailer to see how they look and work. Buying online could be an option if the walk-in store won't match the best online price.
• Look for gotchas.  Read the site's terms and conditions, FAQs and private 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.
• 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 search terms as "review" and "complaints."
• Know warranty limits.  When shopping online, consumers don't generally 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 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, which is permitted in most states. Check the fine print because online retailers typically do disclaim this protections. To preserve 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 customers to obtain a chargeback if there's a problem.
• Keep records.  Keep a copy of the online order page or take a screen shot of it in case an e-mail receipt is never received.

For full report and Ratings of online retailers, visit www.ConsumerReports.org or check out the November issue of Consumer Reports, which hits newsstands on Thursday, September 27^th .

Consumer Reports is the world's largest independent product-testing organization. Using its more than 50 labs, auto test center, and survey research center, the nonprofit rates thousands of products and services annually. Founded in 1936, Consumer Reports has over 8 million subscribers to its magazine, website and other publications.  Its advocacy division, Consumers Union, works for health reform, product safety, financial reform, and other consumer issues in Washington, D.C., the states, and in the marketplace.

SEPTEMBER 2012
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SOURCE Consumer Reports